Reign of Ice
by Leonineus
Summary: While on a Konsō run in the World of the Living, Renji Abarai and Rangiku Matsumoto come across a small, scar-headed baby in the ruins of a house. After experiencing his impressive reiatsu, they take him to Soul Society. This... is Tōshirō Hitsugaya.
1. A Legend Dawns

Reign of Ice

Chapter One: A Legend Dawns

The two Shinigami walked slowly down the street towards the wrecked house. One, a blonde woman with an insanely large bust, flicked her hair out of her face and pouted, "Man, this guy Voldemort is a real pain. We've been deployed out here thousands of times in the last few years. What do you think Renji?"

Her companion, a tall man with a tattooed forehead, a pair of sunglasses and spiky red hair, nodded, "I agree, Rangiku. Do you think we should employ the Stealth Force to take him down?"

Rangiku didn't respond; instead she concentrated on the wrecked house ahead and frowned slightly. "I can feel traces of reiryoku in that house. There's someone still alive in there." She twitched slightly, "And I can feel that guy Voldemort's reiatsu. It's not much, but it's definitely there."

Renji frowned, putting a hand to the side of his head, "You're right. It's not much, almost as much as it would be if the guy just died here."

The two Shinigami glanced at each other for a moment before quickening their pace.

-RoI-

They found the source of the reiatsu upstairs in a small bedroom. A young baby boy lay in a cot, a large lightning bolt-shaped scar on his forehead. Rangiku leaned over him and reached out to pick him up, but she heard Renji's voice behind her, "Leave him. It isn't our place to interfere with the living."

Rangiku sighed, "But Renji, he's an orphan now! We saw his father downstairs and this woman must be his mother!" She pointed to the dead redhead on the ground.

Renji shrugged, "All the same, The Captain-Commander would have our hides if we interfered with any of the living, and taking the kid would count towards that. Now let's get going!"

Rangiku sighed, "Ok, fine." She reached out and caressed the boy's cheek one last time before turning to follow Renji from the room, not noticing the glow emanating from the point of contact between her hand and the baby boy's cheek.

An enormous amount of reiatsu exploded into being in the room, driving both Shinigami to their knees and the wind from their lungs. Rangiku managed to gasp, "What… is _that_?" before she collapsed completely, ending up face-down on the rubble-strewn floor of the room. Or rather, as face-down as somebody of her, ahem, _stature_ could get.

After what felt like a few hours, but was in fact only a few minutes, the reiatsu faded, allowing both of them to get up. Renji coughed, "…Where did that come from?"

Rangiku, being the more spiritually sensitive of the two, glanced back at the bed, "From him. For such a young kid, he's got an awfully large amount of reiatsu. It's not as much as Captain Zaraki of the Eleventh Division, but I don't think anybody can match _him_."

Renji fiddled with his sunglasses for a long moment before he sighed, "Alright. Grab the brat and let's get moving."

Rangiku scowled, "He's not a brat; you're just getting grumpy because he's only a year or so old and he still managed to knock you on your can with just his reiatsu!"

Renji growled, "Rangiku! Grab the kid and let's get the hell out of here before anybody else turns up!"

Rangiku nodded, quickly grabbing some blankets from the cupboard beside the boy's bed and gently wrapping the child in them. He began to cry as she picked him up, but as soon as she hugged him close to her chest he snuggled his tiny head into her cleavage and fell asleep again.

Renji chuckled, "Wow, only about a year old and already a pervert. You're going to be a real menace to society in about a decade kid!"

Rangiku scowled, "Open the Senkaimon, I can't open it with this kid in my hands!"

Renji smirked, but drew his Zanpakutō and opened the Senkaimon. The pair of them stepped into it, the doors closed and Harry Potter disappeared from the world of the living.

As the gates closed entirely, Rubeus Hagrid entered the room just in time to see them start to disappear. He stared as they began to vanish, before finally deciding that Dumbledore needed to know about this, and very soon.

Turning, he left the room at a speed which didn't suit his physique.

-RoI-

**Ten years later.**

The two Zanpakutō clashed together, time and time again. Finally, the taller one leapt backwards away from the younger one's slash and held up a hand, causing him to pause, "What's wrong, Uncle Kenny?"

Kenpachi Zaraki stared down at the boy before him, "Hitsugaya, it is time to stop training for the day."

Tōshirō Hitsugaya, formerly Harry Potter, looked up at his surrogate uncle with a sulky pout, "I don't want to stop. I want to keep training!"

Kenpachi chuckled, "Sure you do, kid. Let's go, you've got Kidō class with Captain Unohana in twenty minutes."

Tōshirō sighed for a long moment before he said, "Fine… I'll see you later Uncle Kenny, Yachiru-chan!"

The small pink-haired girl emerged from behind her captain to give her friend a hug, "See you tomorrow, Tōshirō-chan!"

The boy grinned, hugging her back as some of his silvery locks fell into his eyes. When he had been brought to the Soul Society ten years ago, a side-effect of being brought through a Senkaimon not equipped with a reishi converter had turned Tōshirō's hair silver-white.

After saying goodbye, Tōshirō ran off across the Squad 11 compound towards the gates. He passed a gang of Squad 11 members halfway there, who playfully chased him for about five hundred metres before giving up on the nimble ten-year-old.

Tōshirō was well known in the Soul Society, mainly because he wasn't yet attached to any one squad but was always hanging about the separate captains and learning from them. Some of the squads, namely the Eleventh, Fourth and Second, particularly liked having him around. Everybody found the idea that Soifon, the ice-cold commander of the Stealth Force, being a doting surrogate mother to be utterly hilarious.

Retsu Unohana was sitting in her office when she heard the door slide back and looked up. She smiled happily when she saw Tōshirō Hitsugaya standing in the doorway. "Hello, Tōshirō. How was your lesson with Captain Zaraki?"

"It was great, Auntie Retsu! I'm starting to be able to actually keep up with him without getting kicked repeatedly in the face!"

Unohana smiled, "That's good, Captain Zaraki is one of the best with Zanjutsu in the Soul Society and he has been such for many years. That you can keep up with him, even for a short time, is a huge achievement on your part."

Tōshirō beamed happily for a moment before he sat down opposite her and said, "So, what am I learning today?"

Unohana laughed; a softly musical sound that few, if any, had heard in the Soul Society. Tōshirō had an odd ability to make anybody expose their true selves around him, which was one of the reasons why Soifon and Byakuya Kuchiki of Squad 6 actually thawed out around him. "I'm going to go back over the healing Kidō I've already taught you and see how you do. If you do well enough, I might look at possibly finding you somebody to practice on, but that will _only_ be if you do exceptionally well. As you know I won't have the Fourth Division's good name sullied for malpractice."

Tōshirō nodded obediently, understanding what Unohana was trying to say to him. With healing Kidō, there could be no mistakes as you often had a person's life in your hands.

Before they could start, however, there was a cry of pain from another room. Both of them jumped up and hurried to the door.

They found the source of the cry three doors down from Unohana's office, in a room which was commonly used to store medical texts. Isane Kotetsu, Unohana's lieutenant and another woman who doted on Tōshirō when she saw him, was lying on her back on the ground, moaning with pain. She had evidently overbalanced on the ladder which lay next to her and fallen backwards, hitting her head on the edge of the desk behind her and then landing with her full weight on her back.

Unohana gave her a quick check-up before helping her sit upright and smiling at Tōshirō, "It seems fate has given us an opportunity for you to prove your skill, Tōshirō."

The ten-year-old nodded, crouching down behind Isane and placing one hand on her back, directly between her shoulder blades like Unohana had taught him. Closing his eyes so that he could concentrate, he channelled his reiryoku into Isane's back, causing the tall woman to shiver slightly at the simultaneously cold and warm feeling of his reiatsu.

Unohana watched closely as an aura of pale azure reiryoku appeared around Tōshirō's hand and he shifted it slowly down Isane's back, stopping an inch or two above her tailbone and blushing furiously as he realized what he was doing. Closing his eyes again to get his concentration back, he slowly brought his hand back up Isane's spine, before reaching out with his other hand and setting it on the back of her head.

Retsu Unohana's eyes actually widened. She herself was a master of healing Kidō, but she still needed both hands and her utmost concentration to be able to heal even the smallest wounds. Tōshirō was not only healing two injuries at once, but dividing his attention equally between them and from what she could see, succeeding.

After a couple of minutes he sat back, smiling slightly. Isane flexed her back and turned her head experimentally before smiling, "Good as new. Thank you, Tōshirō-san!"

Tōshirō simply smiled happily at her. Retsu looked down at the small boy next to her and shivered, _how strong was he?_

-RoI-

She dismissed Tōshirō fifteen minutes later, citing that if he was now capable of healing multiple wounds at once without breaking concentration she really had nothing else to teach him.

Nemu Kurotsuchi met him as he walked away from the Fourth Division barracks, as she was currently on the way there to drop off some medical texts that her captain had been researching to see if they could be improved.

The girl had, by order of Yamamoto, started teaching Tōshirō about the various tools the Soul Society used since he was eight years old. The day she started was also the day he met Mayuri Kurotsuchi, and a problem had quickly arisen; namely that as all the captains knew of his origins, and Mayuri was very eager to study this concept known as "magic". Yamamoto had been very concerned when Tōshirō had turned up crying in his office with his arm bleeding from several puncture marks where Mayuri had forcibly taken samples of his blood to experiment on. Yamamoto, ever protective of the child he saw as a surrogate grandson, had ordered Kurotsuchi to destroy the samples he had taken and all research associated with them, before forbidding him from contact with Tōshirō and instructing him to have his lieutenant teach him instead, since the captain of Squad 12 obviously could not be trusted with Tōshirō.

After much grumbling, which was followed by being both crushed against the floor and burnt to a crisp by the irate Captain-Commander's fiery reiatsu, Mayuri had consented for Nemu to teach Tōshirō and simply resorted to staying away from the boy whenever he was around the Twelfth Division. This didn't work out quite as well as he'd hoped it would; mainly because it turned out that "the brat", as he called Tōshirō, had developed a crush on his lieutenant, and whenever he was within earshot of Mayuri whenever he insulted Nemu, either calling her "dull-witted" or "slow", he would usually receive a very hard kick in the shins. Mayuri had been forced to admit that even though the kid was so small, he kicked harder than a foul-tempered mule. It didn't help that he usually ended up being taken to task by the ten-year-old in front of his entire squad, who usually contributed to his irritation by the amount of stifled snickers in the background.

Nemu smiled at Tōshirō as he ran up to her. Considering the emotionless husk she had been, the attitude adjustment was a big improvement. Unohana, concerned that the girl's personality was all but nonexistent and worried that it might have a negative effect on Tōshirō by extension, had asked Mayuri if he would consent to give her a personality of her own. The man had refused. Unohana had simply smiled, opened her eyes, and asked again. The man had crumbled in an instant from the unbridled killing intent radiating from the petite woman. He may have been an intimidating fellow, but Unohana was pretty much the only captain who could kill him without leaving so much as a trace of what she had done behind. Now Nemu was a lively, happy girl with a gentle and sweet personality.

"Hello, Tōshirō-san," she said as the boy approached, grinning broadly, "How are you today?"

"Brilliant, Nemu-chan!" he replied, "Auntie Retsu says she can't teach me anything else about healing Kidō at this point and I can actually keep up with Uncle Kenny in sparring now!"

Nemu smiled, beckoning to the boy with one hand before using it to steady the pile of texts in her arms, "That's excellent, Tōshirō-san. Come, I have to drop off these scrolls and then I'm free for the day. Where are you going next?"

"Auntie Soifon's, she said I could start Shunpō!"

Nemu smiled even wider, shifting the pile slightly so that she could ruffle the boy's hair, "Alright then, I'll walk you there."

Tōshirō nodded happily before moving up closer, "Can I help you carry those?"

Nemu's response was to crouch, take about eight of the texts off the pile and hand them to him. He gathered them in his arms cheerfully, before standing up and waiting for her to rise.

Unohana was pleased to have the medical texts back, and immediately went off to the private library to put them back where they came from while Nemu walked Tōshirō over to the Second Division barracks.

Soifon was happy to see him, laughing when he spotted her lieutenant chewing his way through a bag of fried rice crackers and filching it right out of his hands while he was _looking _at him.

Marechiyo Ōmaeda wasn't a man who let his guard down much. Inside his own barracks however, where nobody was likely to attack him, he couldn't possibly be blamed for letting down his guard. Therefore Ōmaeda was understandably confused when he reached into his bag of food, only to find said bag gone. Looking around to find it, he finally spotted the Hitsugaya boy standing next to Soifon, happily chewing on a cracker from the bag.

Embarrassed by the fact that he had just been robbed under his very nose (literally) by a ten-year-old boy when _he_ was a lieutenant of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads and irritated by the snickering coming from the squad members and Onmitsukidō training nearby, he immediately charged forwards to regain his lost snacks.

Once again, Tōshirō Hitsugaya proved himself a talented pupil for the thirteen captains as he sidestepped Ōmaeda's charge, tripped him up so that he landed face-down on the ground, and then sat on his back. To add insult to injury, the boy cheekily finished off the crackers before upturning the bag, placing it daintily on the lieutenant's head like a floppy hat and hopping off.

Ōmaeda rose, covered in crumbs and utterly humiliated by the pint-sized Shinigami-in-training, turning to face him with a very ugly look on his face. Soifon put a stop to his bloody thoughts about revenge by saying, "Touch him, Ōmaeda, and I will kill you."

Ōmaeda glared at the boy for a long moment before snorting with derision and turning away sulkily. Soifon turned to the boy cheerfully, "Right, now if I recall you wished to learn Shunpō?"

Tōshirō nodded eagerly. Soifon chuckled at his eagerness, "Ok, here is what you have to do…"

-RoI-

A hell butterfly fluttered through the window of Yamamoto's office, landing atop the old man's desk. He looked down, picking up the small creature on his finger. The message was immediately relayed to him.

_My old friend,_

_We need to talk urgently concerning Tōshirō/Harry._

_Albus._

Yamamoto sat back in his chair, remembering a day long ago when Tōshirō had first arrived in the Soul Society, then a baby only a year old with an insane amount of reiatsu that had driven two lieutenant-class Shinigami to their knees, one flat to the floor.

_Yamamoto had been sitting in his office when an equally old and bearded man appeared before him. "Albus," he said, directing his lieutenant to get the man a chair before leaving, "What can I do for you?"_

_Albus Dumbledore sat in the chair, wincing slightly as his old bones protested, "Genryūsai, my old friend and colleague, I find myself in need of a favour."_

"_Then speak."_

"_Well, it concerns a child that was brought to the Soul Society a little while ago."_

"_Yes, I recall that little one. He was brought in by Renji Abarai of Squad Six and Rangiku Matsumoto of Squad Ten, they said he had a large amount of reiatsu."_

"_He does? Oh well. I'm afraid I must return him to the World of the Living, Genryūsai."_

"_Why? Why must he return?"_

"_You know of Lord Voldemort?"_

"_Yes, he's been causing the Thirteen Court Guard Squads no end of trouble since he rose to power. Apparently they've been performing Konsō left and right out there."_

"_Well, Voldemort fell three nights ago… and the boy that your lieutenants brought back is the one who did it."_

"_Excuse me?"_

"_That baby's real name is Harry James Potter… and he is the saviour of the Wizarding World."_

"_And what are you going to do about this?"_

"_Harry must be placed with his relatives. Lily, his mother, invoked a certain magic when she sacrificed herself for her son, and that magic can only protect him while he lives with his relatives."_

"_But surely he is safer here in the Soul Society than he is in the World of the Living?"_

"_I would prefer for the saviour of the Wizarding World to be where he is accessible by the people. They need him to be able to stand together."_

_Yamamoto folded his arms, "Young Tōshirō will be trained as a Shinigami, I'm afraid."_

_Albus quirked an eyebrow, "Tōshirō?"_

_Yamamoto smiled, "Before we didn't know his name, so we named him Tōshirō Hitsugaya."_

_Albus simply hmmed in response before he said, "Might we reach a compromise?"_

"_What do you mean by a compromise?"_

"_I propose that young Harry… sorry, Tōshirō… spends the next ten years being trained in the arts of the Shinigami and then he comes to Hogwarts to learn magic."_

_Yamamoto thought for a long moment before he said, "That sounds reasonable. I will be seeing you in ten years then?"_

_Albus smiled, "Of course. See you then."_

_He stood and strode from the room._

-RoI-

Yamamoto was jerked from his thoughts by his lieutenant saying, "Yamamoto-sotaichō?"

Yamamoto shook his head slightly, "Yes, Sasakibe. If I may ask, will you please send messages to all the captains saying that they are hereby instructed to increase the intensity of Tōshirō Hitsugaya's training regime? He needs to be ready to leave Soul Society on a long term mission in about six months. By that time I would like him to have at least achieved Shikai."

As the last word fell from his lips, Yamamoto's lieutenant stumbled against the wall as an enormous tremor rocked the Soul Society. Both captain and lieutenant looked out across the balcony as an enormous pillar of reiryoku hurtled upwards from the ground in the general area of the Thirteenth Division's barracks. Before their eyes, an enormous serpentine dragon made out of ice and water surged up, coiling around the pillar and squeezing tight before its maw opened and uttered a deafening roar which shook the ground a second time.

A few seconds later, the dragon vanished, along with the pillar of reiryoku. A few seconds passed before Yamamoto's lieutenant turned to him and said, "…Are you sure you want me to give the message, sir? Because I think he's already achieved his Shikai."

Yamamoto did not respond, he simply stood up and swept from the room.

-RoI-

Tōshirō lay on the ground with his Zanpakutō at his side, panting. Ukitake crouched down next to him, "Are you alright there, Tōshirō-san?"

"Ye… yes. I-I'm fine, just a little… worn out." And with that, he passed out.

Ukitake frowned slightly before calling, "Kaien! Kiyone! Sentarō! Would you mind carrying Tōshirō-san inside so that he can rest for a while?"

The three Shinigami hurried outside, picked up the silver-haired boy and carried him inside as he dozed in their arms. Ukitake turned around to find all the other captains staring at him. "He's fine, just needs to sleep for a while after achieving Shikai."

Yamamoto stepped forwards, "This is actually a good opportunity. I received a message from an old friend back where Tōshirō comes from; he says that Tōshirō needs to return in time for a specialized school. I want each of you except for the Captains of Squads Three, Five and Nine to intensify your training regime with him, make sure he is fully capable before I send him out there. Captain Kurotsuchi, as your lieutenant is his teacher, I'm giving you a special assignment. You need to make him a special gigai that he can keep on for days at a time. I also need you to make him a gikongan which is almost indistinguishable from the real one so that he can fight off the Hollows attacking where he is going; since my old friend also mentioned to me that the amount of ambient magic around there draws them like a magnet. He usually manages to deal with them alone but there are now too many for him to handle. The gigai needs to be specially modified so that he has access to his Zanpakutō while inhabiting it as well, by the way."

Retsu Unohana spoke up, "Sotaichō, where is he going?"

Yamamoto shook his head, "Wait a couple of days, then all will be explained in a meeting."

Kenpachi shrugged, "Suits me," before he wandered off to find somebody to fight.

Soifon gave the Captain-Commander a worried look, "Will he be ok?"

Yamamoto chuckled. It was as he had heard Renji Abarai predict when he and Rangiku Matsumoto bring back Tōshirō from the World of the Living, he was going to be a total menace to society in later years. He'd already managed to corrupt all the Captains, including the normally aloof Byakuya Kuchiki and Soifon. He might make a good future captain for Squad Ten, which had been captainless for the last few years. _"Perhaps after he leaves Hogwarts…"_

Out loud he said, "Of course, Captain Soifon."

-RoI-

Tōshirō came back to consciousness to feel soft cold breath on his face. Opening his eyes, he found a draconic face hovering above his own.

"Wh…what?" he groaned.

The dragon tilted its head to one side, **"I am Hyōrinmaru. I am the spirit of your Zanpakutō."**

"Hyō… Hyōrin… Hyōrinmaru?"

"**Yes. I am Hyōrinmaru. Now, I need to tell you a couple of things. First, because you have so much spiritual pressure then your Zanpakutō is going to be in a perpetual state of Shikai release. Therefore I, the embodied spirit of your Zanpakutō, will always be around."**

"Really? Cool."

"**No, cold." **There was a faint teasing lilt to the dragon's tone as it darted downwards and twined around his arm, looping gently around his neck twice like a scarf so that its head hung over his shoulder, Hyōrinmaru's soft breath tickling his ear as he rolled over and stood up.

The door opened, revealing Kaien Shiba standing in the doorway, "Hey, you're up! How are you feeling… what is that?"

Tōshirō raised his free hand and tickled the dragon under its chin, "This is Hyōrinmaru. He says he is my Shikai release."

"An ice-type… that figures. You've had everybody really worried about you kid, did you know that?"

Tōshirō wandered over, permitting Kaien to ruffle his hair, "Come on kid, Captain Kuchiki wanted me to tell you that he wants to see you for Bakudō training as soon as you wake up."

He smirked and held out a hand, "This little guy doesn't look too dangerous, does he? He's cute!" He reached out a hand, only for the tiny dragon to lunge out and snap at his fingers.

Tōshirō scowled, putting up a hand to the small creature, "Don't insult Hyōrinmaru-san, he doesn't like it."

Kaien gave him a small grin, "Alright brat, get moving. You don't want to keep Captain Kuchiki waiting!"

Tōshirō grinned broadly, "No I don't! See you Kaien-san!" and vanished in a Shunpō.

Kaien chuckled, "He's a good kid," and wandered off to find out what his wife Miyako was up to.

-RoI-

The next few days passed briskly, and soon Hell Butterflies were going out to every Captain summoning them and their Lieutenants to a meeting, with the exception of Squad Ten, who had no Captain and therefore only their Lieutenant Rangiku Matsumoto received a Hell Butterfly.

Tōshirō was fighting with Kenpachi when he received a Hell Butterfly as well, summoning him to the Head Captain's office. Unable to shake the feeling that he'd done something wrong (again, there was that one time he pranked those four guys in the Third Division attempted to beat him up because the way they saw it, "a brat like him shouldn't be a Shinigami". All of them had been found by Lieutenant Izuru Kira lying in a twitching heap at the Third Division's barracks gate with a note tacked to them saying _"Let this be a lesson; do not cross Tōshirō Hitsugaya." _None of them had ever troubled the boy again after that.

When Tōshirō walked into Yamamoto's office, the first thing he saw was a man who looked a lot like Yamamoto sitting in a chair next to the elderly Captain-Commander's desk. "Yamamoto-jii-san, who is this?"

Yamamoto chuckled at the affectionate nickname his surrogate grandson had for him, that only Tōshirō was allowed to call him. "Tōshirō, this is Albus Dumbledore. He is a very old friend of mine who runs a school in the British Isles."

Tōshirō frowned, "The where?"

Albus chuckled, "I wouldn't be surprised that you don't remember the name; you were only a year old the last time you were there."

Tōshirō frowned, "I was born in Soul Society. I have no idea what you're talking about."

Yamamoto spoke up, "Actually, Tōshirō, that is not quite true. Your family were killed just over ten years ago. The two lieutenants stationed in your area at the time to perform Konsō on the killer's victims' souls found you in the remains of your house and brought you to the Soul Society when they discovered how much reiryoku you had. Anybody who can crush two Lieutenant-class Shinigami flat to the floor with just their reiatsu is bound to be highly powerful."

Tōshirō shook his head slightly in agitation, calming only when Hyōrinmaru touched his whiskered nose to his ear and murmured, **"I am here if I am needed, Tōshirō."**

Tōshirō raised a hand and pinched the bridge of his nose, "So, I actually come from this place called the "British Isles", right? And you want me to go to this school in the British Isles, of which I assume you are the headmaster?"

Dumbledore nodded, smiling, "Indeed. I think you have the capabilities that I am looking for, given who your parents were."

Without waiting for Tōshirō's response he turned to Yamamoto, "Genryūsai, what has he learnt?"

Yamamoto began to explain, "He has learnt Hadō under my tutelage, Hohō and Hakuda under Captain Soifon of the Second Division and the Onmitsukidō, healing Kidō under Captain Unohana of the Fourth Division, Bakudō under Captain Kuchiki of the Sixth Division, Zanjutsu under Captain Zaraki of the Eleventh Division and has gained the use of his Shikai under the guidance of Captain Ukitake of the Thirteenth Division."

Dumbledore nodded, "And what has he learnt from the Captains of the Third, Fifth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth and Twelfth Divisions? I know for a fact that Squad Ten has no Captain."

The Captains stiffened. Komamura voiced what they were all thinking with a growl, "And you know that how?"

Yamamoto held up a hand, "Peace, Captain Komamura." He turned back to Dumbledore, "In answer to your question, Tōshirō has learnt about the history of the Soul Society from Captain Kyōraku of the Eighth Division, moral obligation and compassion from Captain Komamura of the Seventh Division, and he has learnt about spiritual tools such as gigai and gikongan from the Lieutenant of the Twelfth Division, Nemu Kurotsuchi." The girl in question waved across the room.

As Dumbledore nodded to himself, Yamamoto turned to Tōshirō, "Part of the reason why you are going to Hogwarts, that is the name of the school, is because the concentration of magical power in the school from so many young children draws Hollows like a magnet. Dumbledore can no longer deal with them alone, and pardon me for saying this but we have no other Shinigami who would fit in there. All the others would be too old to fit in properly. You on the other hand are just the right age."

Tōshirō folded his arms quietly, listening attentively as his adoptive grandfather explained his reasoning. Finally he said, "I understand. What need I do?"

Dumbledore stood up cheerfully, "Ah, excellent. I will escort you to Diagon Alley, where we…" but Yamamoto cut him off.

"Captain Kurotsuchi, what is the status of the gigai and gikongan I assigned you to create?"

Mayuri Kurotsuchi frowned, before turning to his Lieutenant, "Nemu, bring in the gurney."

Nemu walked over to the door, opened it and pulled a large gurney inside. On it lay an exact clone of Tōshirō Hitsugaya.

Tōshirō stared blankly at it for a long moment before he blushed slightly and said, "Um, ok. How do I get into it again?"

Mayuri turned to Nemu and started berating her for not teaching Tōshirō a simple thing like putting on a gigai, only for Tōshirō to move in front of him with Shunpō and kick him very hard in the shins. "Ow! You little…" he bellowed, clutching at his shins for a second before a small hand grabbed the front of his shihakusho and dragged him down so that he was eye-to-eye with the eleven-year-old boy.

"Never," said Tōshirō in a voice that could've frozen molten steel, even as the temperature in the room decreased by about twenty degrees, "insult Nemu-san. Are we clear?"

Mayuri nodded once, deciding not to aggravate the scary little creature that had once been an innocent-looking eleven-year-old boy anymore than he already had, and Tōshirō released him, turning to the gurney and picking up the gigai by its shoulders. "Now," he said sweetly, his face adopting an expression eerily reminiscent of Unohana's usual look, "Would you please be so kind as to tell me how to put on this gigai, Kurotsuchi-taichō?"

Kurotsuchi fought down a shiver that even Kenpachi wasn't able to fully quell, "Of… of course. You hold the gigai from behind like this…" he demonstrated on Nemu, gripping her shoulders in a gentle hold. Nobody missed that his hands were shaking slightly.

"…then you push your reiryoku into the gigai to inhabit it. That's it!" he suddenly said as Tōshirō succeeded in inhabiting the gigai. He straightened up, flexing his arms and legs carefully before reaching over his shoulder and touching the hilt of the Zanpakutō sheathed on his back. As his fingers made contact with the cool hilt, Hyōrinmaru reappeared, coiling around his arm and looping around his neck like Byakuya Kuchiki's scarf before coming to rest.

"**Don't ever do that again, Tōshirō."**

"Heh, sorry. No choice in the matter, Hyōrinmaru."

"**Grr. Oh well."**

Yamamoto interrupted, "Would you mind testing your gikongan now, Tōshirō?"

Tōshirō took the pill that Nemu handed him and swallowed it. A few seconds later his spirit separated from his gigai and appeared standing beside it.

Mayuri Kurotsuchi promptly punched the gigai in the stomach, causing it to disgorge the gikongan and slump back into Renji's arms where the redhead was standing behind Tōshirō.

"And what was that for?" said Tōshirō curiously to Mayuri as he picked up the gikongan and handed it back to the boy.

"We proved it works, therefore we do not need to test it any more. As an added function, I also designed the gikongan so that anything it learns while in your gigai, you will learn when you re-enter your gigai."

Tōshirō smiled quietly, "That could be a helpful function. Don't worry though Yamamoto-jii-san, I won't use it to skive off."

Dumbledore observed this exchange quietly for a minute before he interjected, "Alright, we should be going. If you would be so kind as to enter your gigai, then we can head off to Diagon Alley to collect your things. I also want to say something else; while you are at Hogwarts, you report to me and me alone. Understand?"

Tōshirō frowned slightly at the way he was emphasising that he was higher than the Captain-Commander in the chain of command, before bowing, "I understand… _headmaster_."

Dumbledore smiled, his eyes twinkling at the silver-haired boy as the boy straightened from the bow and walked over to collect his gigai.

**(A/N: Well, what do you think? This is an idea I came up with a very long time ago. Hopefully **_**this**_** story won't suffer the same fate as my **_**other**_** HP stories. Tell me what you think, this is my first step into the Bleach fandom and my first step into the HP fandom in a very long time. I hope you enjoyed this story.)**

**(A/N 2: Oh and if any of you reading this happen to be fans of Both Sides of the Kunai, I have just jumped into the trip to the Land of the Sea so the chapter should come quite soon. Until then folks, this is Leonineus saying GOODNIGHT!)**


	2. Diagon Alley

Reign of Ice

Chapter Two: Diagon Alley

They left Soul Society through a Senkaimon fifteen minutes later, appearing on a street outside an old building. Dumbledore pointed to it, "That, Tōshirō, is the Leaky Cauldron. We're going in there."

Tōshirō looked around warily, noticing that a lot of people were watching the two of them curiously. "Shall we get going? We are attracting unwanted attention here."

"Hey kid," said a voice before Dumbledore could respond, "How about you hand over the ornamental sword and nobody has to get hurt? And granddad there can give up his money as well if he has any."

Tōshirō turned around to see four large thugs standing there, "Get lost, you lot. Don't make me beat you and send you crawling back home whimpering."

Dumbledore set a hand on his shoulder, "Tōshirō, don't."

Tōshirō scowled, pulling his arm away, "No. Something I learnt at home was that if you don't cut the problem off at the source then it'll never get sorted out."

The lead thug chuckled, "So you think that a squirt like you can stop the four of us?"

Tōshirō smirked, "No, I _know_ that I can stop the four of you."

One of them pulled out a flick-knife. Tōshirō laughed, "That's not a blade, buddy. _This _is a blade!" He drew his Zanpakutō.

The four men took one look at the boy and run for it. Tōshirō yelled after them, "Yeah, you'd _better_ run! If I ever hear of you troubling anybody again I'll come back after you, _got that_?" As soon as all four had disappeared around the corner, he sheathed his Zanpakutō and turned back to Dumbledore, "Let's go."

Dumbledore made sure the two of them were inside the Leaky Cauldron when he started remonstrating Tōshirō, "That was unnecessary, Tōshirō. You should always show compassion towards your enemies."

Tōshirō stared at him, "Show compassion towards people who are trying to harm me? At what point was I supposed to practice everything you preach?"

Dumbledore scowled under his beard, "When I became your headmaster, Tōshirō."

Tōshirō looked fairly mutinous, "You're my headmaster, not my father. My father is dead."

Dumbledore frowned, "You still ought to follow my example."

Tōshirō growled, "Listen, you wanted me to come to Hogwarts to handle the Hollow infestation and learn to use "magic". That doesn't mean I need to live and breathe what you say."

Dumbledore opened his mouth, but then closed it and smiled, "Of course. You will take a little while to adapt to how things work at Hogwarts, I understand."

Tōshirō turned his back in disgust, "Let's just get moving. The sooner I have my school things, the sooner I can go home." He stalked towards the back of the pub.

Dumbledore opened the gateway into Diagon Alley and walked through. As they stepped through the gateway, he tried to grip Tōshirō's shoulder, only for the boy to shrug him off irritably.

Tōshirō's temper only worsened as they walked down the alley. Every time somebody called out to Dumbledore, whether to greet him or ask his opinion on something in the newspaper, anything; he would insist on introducing Tōshirō like he was some kind of trophy.

After the twentieth person, Tōshirō was actively grinding his teeth and people were noticing that the alley seemed unnaturally cold for mid-August. Dumbledore noticed this, "Tōshirō, it is important for you to make good connections in the Wizarding World. After all, these people owe you fro defeating Voldemort, even though they don't know it's you."

Tōshirō scowled, "I understand _that_ much… what I don't like is that you seem insistent on displaying me to absolutely _everybody_. I don't _like_ publicity."

Dumbledore gave him an understanding smile which didn't fool the boy one bit, "Ahhh, but sometimes we must suffer such necessary evils in our day-to-day activities, mustn't we?"

"Do not patronize me, _sir_."

"I'm not patronizing you Harry… Tōshirō."

"Did I hear right?" said a woman nearby. Tōshirō noticed that she had tightly-curled blonde hair and jewelled glasses as she continued, "Did you just call this boy Harry, Professor Dumbledore, as in Harry _Potter_?"

Tōshirō swore loudly and inventively in Japanese for a few minutes (you pick up a lot of interesting words playing pranks on people who don't treat you nicely, after all) before rounding on Dumbledore, "Now see what you did?"

The woman caught Tōshirō's sleeve, "Come with me Harry, maybe you can give an interview to the Daily Prophet?"

Tōshirō gave her a hard stare, and the Alley cooled by about thirty degrees. Dumbledore realized that the change in temperature fluctuated according to how irritated Tōshirō was. A mild chill meant vague frustration, it seemed, while a full-blown sub-zero Arctic chill like this one meant that the boy was getting dangerously close to the point of total eruption.

"Remove your hand from my arm," said Tōshirō in glacial tones, "or I will break it."

The woman's smile slipped a little, "Really, Harry, is that any way to talk to somebody?"

Tōshirō growled, "My name is not Harry, it is Tōshirō! Tōshirō Hitsugaya! I wasn't born here, I come from Japan, and I'm an exchange student who's out getting Hogwarts supplies. Only he," he jerked a thumb at Dumbledore, who was still standing behind him, "seems convinced that I'm Harry Potter and therefore he keeps trying to introduce me to the 'right' kind of people. I don't believe it's occurred to him that I might like to make choices for myself."

Rita Skeeter could smell a scoop when she encountered one. Now she just had to pry more details from the boy before her. She could almost see the title already; _Boy-Who-Lived Educated in Japan, Dumbledore Attempts Control!_

Dumbledore could see the control he had been trying to cultivate over the rebellious eleven-year-old all day crumbling before his eyes. He decided to take action, "Harry, we should be going, I don't think it's appropriate for you to be talking to the press this early…" but petered off at the look Tōshirō cast him.

"My name is not Harry," the silver-haired boy hissed violently at Dumbledore, the long ice dragon Hyōrinmaru sliding along his arm to snarl viciously at the old man, "It is Tōshirō."

Rita was now writing on her notepad, thinking that this could be the story that changed her career for the better. "So… Tōshirō… where have you been for the last few years?"

"A school in Japan. I learnt a lot there."

"And the dragon on your shoulder is…?"

"That's Hyōrinmaru, he's my familiar."

"Indeed. And you know how to use that sword?"

"Yep. I also learnt some cool stuff there but I can't really show it, they don't want their secrets stolen back at school, after all!"

Rita nodded, understanding this reasoning. "So," she said, "Do you intend to come back to England permanently now?"

Tōshirō shrugged, "Maybe. It depends on how I get treated in the press after my long disappearance. And of course on how much certain people try to manipulate me. I've only been back in England for about an hour."

Rita frowned, "I see. Well thank you for this interview, Har… Tōshirō… and I hope to see you again another time!" She hurried off, but before she could disappear he called out to her.

"Could I get a copy of your article?"

"Of course, Tōshirō!" she cried back, "I'll send the paper to you by a fast owl!"

Dumbledore said nothing else to Tōshirō until they reached the doors of Gringotts, where he consented to answer Tōshirō's numerous questions concerning the bank and the goblins that ran it. Once Tōshirō had exhausted his supply of questions he said, "We need to have you verified as Harry Potter, I'm afraid, it's the only way the goblins will allow you access to your vaults."

"And we'll do that how?" he asked as they approached an empty till.

"Oh, you just need to donate some blood."

"Donate some blood? It's a gigai, an artificial body! There's no way they're going to go for…"

"Ahem…" said the goblin behind the till, evidently a little irritated at being ignored by the pair still engaged in their discussion.

"Yes?" asked Tōshirō, turning to him.

The goblin scrutinized him, "Did you say that you are wearing a gigai?"

Tōshirō gulped; but there was no point in pretending any more. "Yes, yes I am."

The goblin nodded, standing up, "If you will follow me."

Tōshirō followed the goblin into a room. Dumbledore attempted to follow, but was rebuffed by the goblin guards. "I am Mr Potter's magical guardian," he protested.

The goblin who had led Tōshirō turned to him, "That remains to be seen from the parents' will. At the moment however, you may not participate in this meeting until your guardianship is verified."

The door closed on Dumbledore's complaints, and the goblin turned to Tōshirō, "Please dispense with your gigai, Shinigami."

Tōshirō swallowed his gikongan, and was soon standing beside the gigai, which sat down in a corner. The goblin chuckled throatily, "I will never get over how amusing that looks, seeing an identical twin of the false body appearing beside it."

Tōshirō's eyebrows went up, "You've dealt with Shinigami before?"

The goblin nodded and bowed, "I am Bloodnut. It is an honour to make your acquaintance, Shinigami."

"Please," said Tōshirō, "Just call me Tōshirō, or Mr Hitsugaya if you prefer. I don't really like being addressed as Shinigami."

The goblin frowned for a second before nodding, "Very well, Mr Hitsugaya. I will need you to cut your palm with your blade and drip some blood into this bowl… I guess that works too." The goblin trailed off as Tōshirō held up his hand and Hyōrinmaru bit it, hard.

Dripping some blood into the bowl, Tōshirō stepped back, not troubling to do anything about his injury. He had an odd suspicion that the goblin would not be the least bit impressed if he healed his wound, and he wanted to make a good first impression.

The goblin waved a hand over the bowl and muttered, "Potter" under his breath, causing the bowl to glow green. The goblin looked up and bowed again, "It seems your identity checks out."

Tōshirō nodded, before a thought struck him, "What would've happened had the bowl turned a different colour?"

The goblin gave an unpleasant grin, "Had the bowl turned red, several guards would have burst in here and dragged you off to be tried before a goblin court for wasting our time. You may return to your gigai."

Tōshirō quickly donned his gigai again, at which point Bloodnut stood up, "We must retrieve your parents' will from their vault. It will tell us what their wishes were!"

Tōshirō nodded before asking, "I'd like a full inventory of whatever is in my vault or vaults, if you please."

"We can indeed provide you with that back in the main hall. If you will please follow me, Mr Hitsugaya."

Tōshirō followed Bloodnut out of the room, only to be intercepted by Dumbledore, "Tōshirō, I must protest, you need to…"

His voice trailed off as Bloodnut clicked his fingers, causing the two goblin guards to level their weapons at the man, "You will address him at Mr Hitsugaya at all times; is that clear?"

Dumbledore opened his mouth in protest, but then closed it, "I understand."

The goblin walked over to a filing cabinet against one wall and rummaged in it, soon returning with a few sheets of paper. "The amount of money and assorted goods in your vaults amounts to 400,000 Galleons, Mr Hitsugaya. Now we must go and collect some." He hurried towards the back of the hall, Tōshirō and Dumbledore pursuing him.

-RoI-

The ride down to the vault was hair-raising, literally; seeing Dumbledore's long hair and beard streaming out behind them as the cart hurtled downwards was startling. Finally they came to an area where three tunnels met, and saw an incredible sight.

A full grown dragon was going crazy in the middle of the intersection, snapping and breathing fire at the goblins who were attempting to control it. Bloodnut simply turned to Tōshirō, "Mr Hitsugaya, would you mind…?"

"Of course." Tōshirō stood up and closed his eyes, drawing his Zanpakutō and levelling it at the dragon, "Sōten ni zase , Hyōrinmaru!"

Three huge dragons of ice blossomed from his blade, twining around the dragon and bringing it crashing to the floor as they constricted. It gave one last desperate plume of flames before lying still.

Bloodnut thanked Tōshirō quietly as the goblins ran to subdue the dragon before one of them, a burly-looking one (by goblin standards), turned to them and spotted Tōshirō standing on the cart with his Zanpakutō still drawn.

"SHINIGAMI IN THE TUNNELS!" he roared, causing the goblins to snap to attention and salute before resuming their work.

Tōshirō gave Bloodnut a confused look, causing the goblin to chuckle, "Our race is very old, Mr Hitsugaya. We used to have an alliance with the Shinigami before they withdrew from this world. Even now, Shinigami are revered and honoured by all goblins where we encounter them. We teach our children that if they ever meet a Shinigami, they are to treat them with respect. Such is the way that all goblins now live."

Tōshirō nodded as he sheathed his sword and sat back down, the cart setting off again as soon as the dragon had been moved out of the way.

-RoI-

They returned to the main bank carrying some gold from Tōshirō's vaults and the will. Dumbledore tried to intercept the will as soon as Tōshirō entered the chamber with the old man and Bloodnut behind him. Numerous goblins approached and bowed; evidently the news that there was a Shinigami in the bank had spread rapidly.

As Tōshirō inspected the will and Dumbledore fretted inwardly over the steadily declining amount of influence he had over the boy, Bloodnut performed a brief test. Finally, he took back the will when Tōshirō handed it to him and stood, his fingers brushing the head of Hyōrinmaru as he straightened up and said, "We should go, I still have to get my school supplies."

Bloodnut nodded and bowed, "Farewell, Mr Hitsugaya. May your enemies fall before you and your hands run full with gold!"

Tōshirō bowed back and smiled, "Thank you, Master Bloodnut. May _your_ enemies fall before you and your hands run full with gold as well."

-RoI-

"I'm sorry, Harry, but that book is too far above your level for now."

"_Professor_, it's a basic rune booklet. How is that too advanced for me?"

"Harry, you don't want to start messing with things too advanced for you before you are sufficiently skilled to deal with them."

"…It's a _basic_ rune booklet. According to the back cover it lists about five of the most basic runes and shows how they can be combined in a tiny array that creates a small beam of light like a tiny torch. That's not advanced. That's junior stuff!"

Dumbledore's eyes just twinkled as he plucked the book from his hand and returned it to its shelf. Tōshirō sighed before wandering along the shelves and taking down a small book on Arithmancy. Dumbledore immediately tugged it out of his hand and replaced it.

Exasperated, Tōshirō rounded on him, "That makes eight different books you have refused to allow me to purchase. Do you do this with all your prospective students, or is there some ulterior motive _why_ you insist on seemingly trying to limit what I want to learn?"

Dumbledore gave him the standard grandfatherly smile which didn't fool him in the slightest, "I'm merely concerned you might be moving too fast, Harry."

"My name is Tōshirō!" he snapped back, "And there seems to be an owl trying to get your attention."

Dumbledore turned around and plucked the letter off the leg of the owl that was indeed attempting to get his attention. Quickly opening it and reading it, he turned back to Tōshirō, "I'm sorry, Tōshirō, but I'm being summoned for an emergency Wizengamot meeting. Unless you'd like to come with me?"

Tōshirō shook his head, "No thank you. Politics isn't my style."

"Are you sure?" Dumbledore knew that it would better his image in the public eye if he were shown as being the mentor to the Boy-Who-Lived.

Tōshirō gave him a tight smile, "No thank you. If you recall, I'm here to collect my school things; I can't be wandering off to do frivolous things when I have something so important to do."

To give him credit, Dumbledore did recover quickly, patting Tōshirō on the head and beaming at him, "Good boy. Don't get in trouble, I'll be back to collect you soon."

"Oh, don't rush on my account," muttered Tōshirō, accepting the list of items Dumbledore handed him, "I'm fine alone."

It was only after Dumbledore had disappeared with a small pop that Tōshirō remembered that he could not yet open a Senkaimon on his own. _"I'll manage somehow. Maybe rent a room in the Leaky Cauldron or something."_

He wandered down the street and headed into Madame Malkin's Robe Shop, where he asked to be fitted. The woman asked him a few idle questions concerning Hyōrinmaru, which he answered without really giving anything concrete away. Once he had his new robes packed up into a bag, he left.

Deciding to purchase a trunk before he bought anything else, he headed along to the trunk shop he had seen earlier. Various people glanced at him as Tōshirō walked down the alley. He guessed he cut a pretty bizarre figure; a silver-haired boy with a full-length katana on his back and a serpentine dragon made entirely out of ice wrapped around his chest and draped over his shoulders like a scarf.

The salesman grinned at Tōshirō and hurried over when the boy entered. Evidently he recognized a paying customer, "Can I help you?"

Tōshirō smirked, "Yes please, I'd like to purchase a large trunk please. Preferably something that can hold a lot of books."

The salesman grinned, "Then you've come to the right place, young man! I think this trunk here in the corner would suit your purposes; it has three compartments and is keyed to your blood. It also shrinks on command for ease of carrying."

"How do I switch between compartments?"

"I am glad you asked that, young man! You see that there are three keyholes?"

"Yes…?"

"Well, depending on which keyhole you put the key into, it opens a different compartment. If you wish to switch from one compartment to the next directly; you need to close the lid, pull out the key and put it into the next one."

"Right. That actually sounds like a good one for me, how much?"

"Fifty Galleons; a bargain price!"

Tōshirō rummaged in his money pouch and counted out the sufficient funds. The salesman lifted the trunk onto the counter and showed Tōshirō how to shrink it and enlarge it on command, before handing him the key and taking his money. "Thank you for your business!"

Once Tōshirō had carried the trunk outside, he opened it and tossed in his robes before closing it and shrinking it again.

He proceeded along the street to the wand shop Dumbledore had pointed out earlier in the day. Pushing the door open, he walked inside.

"Good afternoon," murmured a soft voice behind him. Tōshirō whirled around, drawing his Zanpakutō and levelling it against the mystery person's chest.

"Well," commented the man, "I've never had that reaction before. Then again, I've never had to serve a Shinigami either so I guess there's a first time for everything."

"How do you know I'm a Shinigami?" asked Tōshirō cautiously.

The man gazed at him with blank eyes, "You really need to learn to control your spiritual pressure, young man."

Tōshirō raised an eyebrow, "Anyway, I want to buy a wand."

The man nodded, "Then you have come to the right place! I am Mr Ollivander."

He ran across to the wall of square boxes and pulled one out, "Beech wood and dragon heartstring, a full foot long, nice and flexible."

Tōshirō plucked the wand from the box and raised it, but then it was snatched from his hand by Ollivander.

-RoI-

They tested at least thirty more wands before Tōshirō put down the thirty-second wand in disgust and said, "You say that wands choose a magical core. Why don't I just do a magical pulse and we can see which wands react?"

Ollivander stared blankly at him for a minute before shrugging, "It's worth a try."

Tōshirō closed his eyes, bringing his hands together and allowing his spiritual pressure to leak out. The room cooled around them as faint rattling noises began to issue from the back of the shop.

Ollivander went to collect the wands that seemed to be reacting, soon coming back with two small boxes. As he opened the first one and lifted out the wand inside he murmured, "Ebony and griffin talon, seven-and-three-quarter inches, a very powerful wand."

Tōshirō picked up the wand and immediately felt warmth in his hand. It might have been his imagination, but the wand glowed as well before he twitched it slightly and sparks showered from the end. Ollivander smiled, "Very good! Now, that will be…"

"Can I try the other one too?" Tōshirō wasn't sure what made him ask, but he had a funny feeling that he should.

Ollivander's eyebrows quirked slightly, but he looked up and nodded. Opening the second case, his protuberant eyes widened slightly and he gave Tōshirō a quick glance before lifting out the wand and saying, "Holly and phoenix feather core, eleven inches in length."

Tōshirō took the wand from Ollivander, immediately feeling similar warmth to the first wand in his hand.

Ollivander's brows furrowed as he watched the wand blossom sparks from its tip, "That's unusual. Two wands choosing the same wizard… Which would you like?"

Tōshirō cocked his head to one side, "I read in a book earlier that the Aurors and hit-wizards commonly keep a backup wand on hand in case they need it. Would it be possible to purchase a wand holster which holds two wands, one my standard and the other my backup?"

Ollivander gave him a long look, and Tōshirō was beginning to think that he might've offended the man for a minute before Ollivander smiled mysteriously and walked into the back room, soon returning holding a small leather object with a pair of straps. He showed Tōshirō how to strap it to his left arm (Tōshirō having told him that he was ambidextrous and always held his sword in his right hand and therefore would probably use his wand with his left) and put the wands in, before charging him sixteen Galleons for each of the wands and twenty for the holster.

Tōshirō stepped out of the dark wand shop with Ollivander's farewell warning ringing in his ears.

_Beware, young Shinigami. We stand in awe before that which cannot be seen, and we respect with every fibre that which cannot be explained. Sometimes things are not meant to be either seen or understood. Beware those things, for they might bring about your undoing._

Tōshirō stretched slightly as he walked down the street, glancing about carefully before he stopped in front of another shop which looked to be very dark inside. Walking through the door, he glanced around at the many eyes staring down at him.

His eyes abruptly fell on a small snowy owl as he walked around the many perches. She looked back at him with round amber eyes, and he immediately knew that this was the bird for him.

As he walked up to her, the shop-owner spoke up from behind the counter, from where he had been eyeing Hyōrinmaru cautiously as though expecting him to eat one of the owls, "Be careful, that owl isn't exactly tame. She bites everybody who… how did you do that?"

His jaw dropped as the female owl which had bitten every prospective owner fluttered to the silver-haired boy's shoulder and sat there quite happily, sharing with the dragon-like creature sitting on his other shoulder.

Tōshirō walked up to the counter and said, "I'd like to purchase this owl, please."

The shopkeeper nodded, still staring at the owl on the boy's shoulder. The dragon creature on the other shoulder growled at him, causing him to flinch slightly and take the money that Tōshirō was handing him.

Tōshirō walked out of the shop with his new owl on his shoulders and several things for her in his new trunk. Deciding that the first thing he needed to do was find a load of good books he wanted to read before Dumbledore came back and stopped him. Suppressing a derisive snort at Dumbledore's behaviour before he drew attention to himself, Tōshirō stretched his arms out in front of him and yawned quietly to himself for a long moment before wandering along the street to Flourish & Blotts.

-RoI-

An hour and a half later, Tōshirō walked back out of the bookstore and arched his back, causing a series of cracks to issue from his spine. Several people within earshot winced at the sound as Tōshirō grinned and slipped his shrunken trunk back into his pocket. "Now…" he mused, looking up and down the alley, "Where shall I go next… I have my books, wand, robes…" he stood there in silent contemplation for a moment before smiling, "Cauldron and potions ingredients! To the apothecary and cauldron shop!" He set off along the street.

After picking up a standard potions kit from the apothecary and a pewter cauldron from the cauldron shop and packing both inside his trunk, he decided it was time to find some food so he wandered along the Alley until he spotted what appeared to be an ice-cream parlour. Remembering a time when Renji had gone out to the World of the Living and brought back a box of a similar treat called a "Magnum" which they shared, Tōshirō scampered across to the shop and hurried inside.

Sitting down in a corner with a large bowl of chocolate-flavoured ice cream, Tōshirō watched the people walking past his table curiously. People of all shapes and sizes were wandering by; a redheaded woman with about five children of various ages following her, a round-faced boy following a severe-looking woman in a large hat topped with what looked like a large bird… and a small girl with long, wavy brown hair and an eager expression, pursued by two people who seemed to be her parents.

Not thinking with his full mind in favour of watching the girl looking around the alley, Tōshirō walked back up to the counter and refilled his bowl of ice cream.

The girl disappeared into several shops, finally coming out of the bookstore looking fairly disgruntled. Evidently in an attempt to cheer the girl up, her parents brought her over to the ice-cream parlour and sat her down at a table while they went to order.

Tōshirō, unable to help his own curiosity, wandered over, "Going to Hogwarts?"

The girl looked up at him and nodded, "Yes. I'm just getting my things."

Tōshirō smirked, taking out his new trunk and putting it on the table, "I've got all my stuff in here!"

The girl poked the shrunken trunk with the tip of her finger, "Isn't it a little small?"

Tōshirō simply smiled mysteriously before putting the tiny trunk on the floor next to him and imagining it expanding. In the blink of an eye, his full-sized trunk was sitting on the floor.

The girl's jaw dropped, "That's amazing! How does it work?"

Tōshirō shrugged, "I don't know. I just bought the thing."

The girl stared at the trunk for a few seconds before he shrank and pocketed it again, "I'm Tōshirō, by the way. Tōshirō Hitsugaya."

The girl smiled, "I'm Hermione Granger."

They shook hands across the table. At that moment, her parents returned with three bowls of ice-cream, "Here you go, Hermione… who is this?"

Hermione turned to her parents, "This is Tushiru."

"Tōshirō, not Tushiru," corrected Tōshirō, chuckling.

"Sorry, Tōshirō."

"It's alright." Tōshirō stood up and held out a hand to Hermione's father, "Tōshirō Hitsugaya, pleased to meet you."

"Dan Granger, likewise."

Hermione's mother spoke, "And I'm Emma."

Hermione looked happy, "Tōshirō is going to be in my year at Hogwarts!"

Emma smiled, "Oh, do you know a lot about the Wizarding World?"

Tōshirō shook his head, "I'm afraid not. I grew up and attended a school in Japan, but I've come here to learn magic at Hogwarts."

Hermione looked startled, "You live in Japan? But you speak English fluently!"

Tōshirō smiled, "It's a Language Charm. I'm still learning English. If you like, I can teach you Japanese in exchange for you teaching me English when we get to Hogwarts!"

Hermione beamed, "That works."

"Tōshirō," said Emma, "Are you here alone? Where are your family?"

Tōshirō smiled, "My family were killed when I was very young. As I said, I was raised and went to school in Japan, then I came here to go to Hogwarts."

Dan frowned, "So you don't have anywhere to go?"

Tōshirō shrugged, "I was planning to rent a room at the Leaky Cauldron until someone comes to get me."

Dan shook his head, "Come and stay with us. Does anybody know how to get hold of you?"

Tōshirō shrugged, "Maybe. I don't know. They didn't give me a Soul Phone when I left to come and collect my stuff."

Emma frowned, "Aren't you concerned?"

Tōshirō smiled, "No. When they need me, they'll come and find me. It was the most consistent thing in my childhood; whenever I wandered off they always found me wherever I was."

Hermione beamed, "Then let's go!" She grabbed Tōshirō's arm and tugged him from his seat. The white-haired male was able to resist long enough to drop enough money onto the table to pay for all their orders before allowing himself to be towed from the café.

-RoI-

For the rest of the day, Tōshirō was given a long tour of all that London had to offer by Hermione while he tutored her in the basics of Japanese. Dan and Emma listened in, but were quickly lost. Dan gave up before his wife did, recognizing that the boy's fair face, deep green eyes and snowy hair concealed a mind quite as intelligent as his daughter's.

Emma had succeeded in keeping up with the duo's conversation for about five more minutes than her husband, but when their conversation turned to obscure references to Japanese mythology in everyday life (this conversation having been started when Tōshirō saw a Godzilla picture in a shop window and Hermione had to explain the movie to him) she quickly became lost.

When they finally headed back home and began to set Tōshirō up in his room, the first thing he did on being left alone was reach into one pocket and take out a picture, which he looked at for a long few minutes before setting it on the bedside table.

The picture had been taken two years previously when Yamamoto had rewarded Tōshirō's mastering a particularly difficult Hadō with a day at the beach. Yamamoto had in fact been in a generous mood (coupled with Tōshirō's very persuasive use of the irresistible puppy dog pout), so he had allowed all the Captains and Lieutenants the day off.

That had been a very enjoyable afternoon on a private beach somewhere in the South Pacific. Kenpachi had a bit of fun wrestling with a shark, Rangiku had tried to sunbathe nude (only for Unohana and Soifon to drag her behind a pile of rocks and lecture her about decency in front of children while Renji, Hisagi and Iba tried to distract Tōshirō) and Yachiru built a sand fortress.

It had also been the day Tōshirō killed his first Hollow. A Hollow had sensed the concentration of reiryoku (even though everybody had Gentei Reiin on them, the level of reiatsu in the area drew the Hollow like a magnet) and decided to see what he could get out of the encounter.

Understandably, considering there were a large number of powerful Shinigami in one location, the Hollow did not escape. Tōshirō had spotted it first and drawn his Zanpakutō, thus alerting everybody else to the approaching enemy.

Yamamoto had held the others back, wanting to see how Tōshirō handled himself in a situation when he was alone against a Hollow.

Needless to say, the Hollow didn't last long. Yamamoto and the other captains were very good teachers, it was proven when Tōshirō managed to first paralyze the Hollow with a Rikujōkōrō and then stab it in the face with his Zanpakutō.

Tōshirō smiled, allowing the memories to dissipate as he set his shrunken trunk on the bedside table and lay down on his back. His Zanpakutō was leaning against the wall and Hyōrinmaru lay on the bedside table as well, his sinuous body wrapped around the base of the lamp.

Tōshirō lay flat on his back, smiling quietly for a second before closing his eyes and slipping into a deep sleep.

**(A/N: Now, the reason I was able to get this out only eight hours (and pretty much exactly that) after I posted the first chapter is because I already had up to just before Hermione drags him out of the Leaky Cauldron when I posted the first chapter, so all it really needed was about another 1,000 words and then it was ready to post. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I'll see you at the start of the next one. Until then, this is Leonineus saying GOODNIGHT!)**


	3. Reign of the Ice Maiden

Reign of Ice

Chapter 3: Reign of the Ice Maiden

**(A/N: Well, I must say I'm **_**very**_** pleased with how this story has been accepted by people. Among the many reviews I've already received, I noticed that some people seem more observant; people have noticed the absence of Momo in Tōshirō's life. The answer to this question is that Momo has not yet featured for a specific reason, but were I to tell you that reason I would probably ruin the plot catastrophically, and I cannot have that, can I? Therefore I simply ask you to trust me with the way this story is going to run and see where I take it.)**

**(A/N 2: At the same time however, I notice how unobservant some of you seem to be. Most of the reviews I've received have questioned why Tōshirō did not immediately return to Flourish & Blotts to get the books Dumbledore would not allow him to have. On the contrary; he did. I actually pointed out that he went back to get them. How did nobody notice that?)**

It was a normal day in the Soul Society. Or at least, normal for practically everybody except those of the First Division, who found themselves being crushed onto the floor by their Captain's fiery reiatsu. The loud voice that echoed down from his office balcony a half-second later wasn't much less obvious, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU LOST HIM?"

Dumbledore frowned, raising his hands as he tried to placate the infuriated Head Captain, "It couldn't be helped, I was summoned away for an emergency Wizengamot meeting. I told him to remain in the Alley, but evidently he disobeyed my instructions. When I returned to the Alley to collect him he was nowhere to be seen. I assumed that one of your Captains or Lieutenants had gone to collect him."

Yamamoto scowled, "You should have taken him with you."

Dumbledore frowned, "I tried. He refused. I do not believe he trusts me."

Yamamoto's eyes opened a crack, "He doesn't? Hmm, I will have words with him when he returns. For now however…" he whistled.

Chōjirō Sasakibe appeared in the doorway, "Yes, Yamamoto-sotaichō?"

Yamamoto looked over at him, "Go to the Twelfth Division and tell them to get their trackers in the World of the Living on the task of finding Tōshirō Hitsugaya."

Dumbledore opened his mouth, but was forestalled by Yamamoto, "No Albus, you are not permitted to retrieve him when we locate him. I am confident that Tōshirō is fully capable of looking after himself, but that still doesn't mean you should have left him there. I will send one of my lieutenants to collect Tōshirō."

-RoI-

Hermione rolled over in bed and blinked up at the ceiling. A few seconds passed in which she thought over the events of the previous day when she had been first exposed to the magical world, before the memory of meeting Tōshirō came back to her and she actually hurdled out of bed.

Moving quickly and quietly along the corridor towards Tōshirō's room, she slowly opened the door and peeked inside. The bed was so neatly made it appeared to have not been slept in; the only signs he had been there was his shrunken trunk on the bedside table, and the small snowy owl perched on the dresser.

Stepping over to the open window, she looked out of it… and spotted Tōshirō sitting cross-legged under the Japanese cherry blossom at the other end of the garden. His eyes were closed, and the sword he had been carrying the previous day was stuck into the ground in front of him. His ice dragon familiar was coiled around the weapon, its head swaying in front of him like a charmed snake.

-RoI-

Tōshirō was currently looking around his mindscape for Hyōrinmaru.

"Greetings," said a soft feminine voice behind him.

Tōshirō turned to find a figure wearing a baggy blue-green kimono with white strips along the edges, held shut with a brown obi that hung down their back in a long fringe. Underneath the mysterious person wore a moss-green turtleneck sweater and what seemed to be a matching knee-length skirt. Light grey sandals completed the ensemble. Long black bangs hung down either side of the figure's head, framing a white mask with four wavy lines on the forehead, slanted eye-slits and two curving red strips over where their mouth would be. At the back of the figure's head, just visible, it appeared the person's hair was pulled up into a bun covered by a white cloth.

"And you are?" muttered Tōshirō, unconsciously settling into a ready stance and raising his Zanpakutō.

The figure reached up and removed their mask, revealing a clear-skinned face with deep brown eyes; a girl. On her forehead, she wore a black headband with a metal plate, engraved with the same odd symbol comprising four wavy lines. She smiled at Tōshirō and bowed, "I am Hyōrinmaru, but you may call me Haku if you so wish."

-RoI-

Hermione walked back downstairs and headed down the garden to where Tōshirō was sitting. When she reached him, she crouched down in front of him and experimentally waved a hand in front of his face. Hyōrinmaru turned to look her in the eyes, and she withdrew her hand.

-RoI-

"So…" said Tōshirō slowly, "How are we going to get you back to your world? You said you had precious people back there."

Haku shook her head, "No, I died back there, and that's how I ended up back here."

Tōshirō thought for a second, "I knew that Zanpakutō had their own manifestations of the wielder's soul, but I didn't realize they were actually _humans_ once."

Haku shook her head again, "It doesn't happen much. It was something I learnt after I died in my own time; only the purest of souls become Zanpakutō spirits. The rest either go to the Soul Society or become Hollows and go to Hueco Mundo. To be honest, I was rather startled when I ended up here."

Tōshirō, sitting opposite her in the snow, leaned across and took her hand, "It's ok, Haku-chan. Now tell me what your world was like!"

Haku smiled, "We used a form of energy which was comprised of a combination of physical energy, now called chi, and what Shinigami now call reiryoku. We called that combination chakra."

"Chakra…" mumbled Tōshirō, rolling the unfamiliar word around his tongue, "Interesting… can I learn to use chakra?"

Haku shook her head, "I don't know how you would even go about training your body up enough to get your levels of physical energy to a level where they can equal your spiritual energy, considering you are but a spirit now thanks to the destruction of your physical body the day you were first brought to the Soul Society, through a Senkaimon with no Reishi converter. Your silver hair was not the only side effect, Tōshirō-kun"

Tōshirō's eyes widened, "How did you know about that? I was only a baby!"

Haku smiled, "I've always been here, Tōshirō-kun." She reached forwards and set her hand on his chest over his heart, "I've always been _here_, in your heart, seeing what you see, hearing what you hear and feeling what you feel."

When Tōshirō did not respond, she continued, "You have so much spiritual energy and you're so unused to controlling it that I am in a permanent Shikai state. You _might _be able to adapt my Hyōton jutsu, that's what we used back then, so that you can create them with your control over ice and snow. You see back in my time I had what is known as a kekkei genkai, or bloodline limit. These bloodline limits usually granted the user some specific ability, like my ability to manipulate ice."

Tōshirō nodded, "So I am incapable of using chakra. Isn't there another way I could learn to use these jutsu?"

Haku thought for a second, "You might be able to create them using the ice manipulation granted to you by me as your Zanpakutō… Give it a try."

She waved one hand, forming a large pool of water in the snow beside them, "Try to create a load of ice needles from that and fire them off in that direction."

Tōshirō closed his eyes and focussed on manipulating his reiryoku to do what was asked of him. "This is harder than I thought it'd be…" he muttered.

Haku smiled, "Considering you are utilizing a different medium to what I always used back when I was still alive, I don't doubt that you are having moderate amounts of difficulty."

Suddenly she turned her head slightly and closed her eyes, "You may want to depart from your meditation now. Your young friend is trying to get your attention."

Tōshirō nodded and made to stand, but Haku caught his arm, "When you go to your new school, you will spend the days learning to manipulate spiritual energy the way they do. During the nights, you will come into your mindscape and learn with me. Is that clear?"

Tōshirō nodded again and Haku let go of his sleeve, allowing him to depart from his mindscape.

-RoI-

Tōshirō opened his eyes to find Hermione sitting in front of him with a plate of bacon sandwiches. She smiled when she saw that he had returned to full consciousness, "Mum made these for us."

Tōshirō nodded and took one of the sandwiches. As he took a bite, Hermione asked, "So why were you meditating?"

Tōshirō swallowed his mouthful and said, "I like to start the day with some meditation; it clears my head, allows me to organize my thoughts for the day ahead."

Hermione nodded, taking a sandwich of her own, "You know, since you taught me a little Japanese yesterday, why don't I teach you some English today?"

Tōshirō grinned and reached up to his neck for the amulet Dumbledore had handed him just after they left for Diagon Alley, which he had said was imbued with a Language Charm so Tōshirō could understand and speak English fluently. Deftly untying the knot, he tossed it onto the grass beside him

As they each took another sandwich, Hermione began to teach.

-RoI-

"Alright, I'm coming!" said Dan Granger exasperatedly as the doorbell rang repeatedly.

Opening it, he came face-to-face with two rather odd people. A tall woman, easily taller than Dan, who had curly silver hair with two small braids hanging down on the right side, and a strawberry-blonde with the biggest pair of breasts he had ever seen in his life.

The taller woman smiled and spoke in slightly accented English, "Hello, my name is Isane Kotetsu and this is my colleague Rangiku Matsumoto, is Tōshirō Hitsugaya here?"

Dan seemed to snap out of the shock at seeing Rangiku's bountiful chest and nodded, "Yes, he is. Am I to understand then, that you are his guardians?"

Isane smiled, "As close to it as you can get. Rangiku-san and I are representatives of the school that young Tōshirō attended back in Japan."

Dan nodded, "Would you like to come in? I will go fetch Tōshirō."

The two women followed Dan through the house to the back garden, whereupon he called, "Tōshirō! There's someone here to see you!"

Tōshirō looked up and beamed when he saw who it was, "Isane-nee-san! Rangiku-nee-san!"

Leaping up, he ran across and hugged both of them. Dan blushed a little when he realized that the boy was almost exactly the right height for his head to fit into the gap between Rangiku's breasts.

"_Lucky little bastard," _he thought, before he suddenly started to sweat.

In the house, Emma suddenly had a feeling she should call her husband in from the garden for a little chat.

Tōshirō stepped back towards Hermione and said, "Hermione, I want you to meet my nee-chans, Isane and Rangiku!"

Hermione chuckled, "Tōshirō, you forgot to put your Language Charm back on, I can't understand what you're saying."

Tōshirō simply held out a hand, so Hermione threw the amulet to him. After tying it back around his neck he said, "Hermione, I'd like you to meet my nee-sans, Isane Kotetsu and Rangiku Matsumoto! Isane-nee-san, Rangiku-nee-san, I'd like you to meet my new friend, Hermione Granger."

Hermione stood up and walked over to shake hands, "A pleasure."

Isane smiled as she shook hands with Hermione, while Rangiku gave the boy beside them a look, "Starting a little early aren't you, Tōshirō-kun?"

Tōshirō went vivid pink, as did Hermione. Struggling to speak through his sudden embarrassment, Tōshirō shouted, "Wha- Rangiku-nee-san! We're not… I mean… I couldn't…"

Neither woman was fooled by the silver-haired boy's denials. Whether they realized it or not, Tōshirō and Hermione already sort of liked each other, even if their brains hadn't worked it out yet.

"Anyway," said Isane, in an attempt to defuse the awkward moment, "You're to return now Tōshirō-kun."

Tōshirō nodded, "Was everyone worried when I didn't come back?"

Isane nodded before replying in Japanese, "Yes. Dumbledore-san was in big trouble with Yamamoto-sotaichō for leaving you alone, even though he knew you can look after yourself."

Tōshirō replied in kind, "Serves him right. That guy seemed a little too controlling for my tastes, and not the "concerned-guardian" sort of controlling either."

Isane frowned, "How do you mean?"

Tōshirō took a moment to remember, "He wouldn't let me buy a couple of basic books on runes and Arithmancy, claimed they were too advanced. Same with about six other books. He kept calling me Harry for some reason, and insisted on my following his views on tolerance and compassion even against people who are actively trying to hurt me when my only real job at Hogwarts is to fend off the Hollows."

Isane frowned, "That's mildly concerning. Do you want to talk to Yamamoto-sotaichō about it?"

Tōshirō nodded, "I intended to. By the way, mind showing me how to open a Senkaimon? I can't open them on my own."

Isane smiled, "You're going to have to open one on the way back anyway; neither of us can access our Zanpakutō while in our gigai."

Tōshirō smirked, "How convenient."

Isane nodded, before speaking in English, "Indeed. Why don't you fetch your new stuff and say your goodbyes then?"

Tōshirō nodded and ran into the house to get his things as Isane turned to Dan and bowed, "I thank you on behalf of my associates for looking after Tōshirō for the night."

Dan opened his mouth but Hermione cut him off, "Never mind, it was a pleasure to make a new friend."

Isane smiled, "Yes, it's nice to know that Tōshirō is going to have a friend at Hogwarts. It's been a pleasure to meet you, Hermione-san."

-RoI-

Tōshirō returned a few minutes later with a tiny trunk in his hand and his new snowy owl sitting on his shoulder.

Rangiku blinked, "Where'd you get the bird?"

Tōshirō smiled, "I bought her yesterday. Isn't she beautiful?"

Isane sighed, reverting to Japanese, "Tōshirō-kun, you can't bring your owl back to Seireitei. Remember what happened when we brought you through the day you arrived in Seireitei, your real body was destroyed by the Dangai and left you a soul. I'm not even sure how your owl's physiology would react, and even if it did survive as just a soul I'm not sure Kurotsuchi-taichō can make gigai for owls."

Tōshirō's face fell. Isane turned to Hermione and switched over to English, "Hermione-san, I apologize but we must ask another favour of you. Tōshirō cannot take his owl back to Japan with him, so is it alright if it stays with you?"

"She," said Tōshirō, "Her name is Tsuki." (Moon)

Hermione smiled, "Of course. I can understand laws of animal transport."

Tōshirō walked over to her with Tsuki on his shoulder and got her to move to Hermione's shoulder, "Sorry Tsuki-chan, but I can't take you with me to Japan. You'll have to stay with Hermione until we go to Hogwarts, alright?"

Rangiku scratched her chin, "We _could_ ask Yamamoto-sotaichō if he can order one of the Kidō Corps to place the same Kidō on her that we place on the Jigokuchō so that they may pass from the Seireitei into the World of the Living."

Isane paled, "Rangiku-san, you just said that in English!"

Tōshirō turned to look at Hermione, who looked curious, and decided to head her off, "The Kidō Corps is one of the divisions of the school I went to in Japan, Kidō is the branch of magic taught there. Yamamoto-sotaichō is the headmaster there. Jigokuchō are the Hell Butterflies, how we communicate between campuses in Japan. The Seireitei is the main campus, and the World of the Living is a nickname given to one of our other campuses."

Rangiku blinked, _"Wow, he really can think on his feet can't he?"_

Hermione thought for a second, "I guess that makes sense. Well, I'll be happy to look after Tsuki for you."

Tōshirō smiled, "Thanks, Hermione."

-RoI-

Once Tōshirō and Hermione had got all of Tsuki's stuff set up in Hermione's room, Tōshirō said his goodbyes and left with Isane and Rangiku.

Once they were sheltered in a deserted alley and Rangiku had placed a Kidō barrier across the entrance to deter any passers-by, Tōshirō drew his Zanpakutō and said, "So how do we do this?"

Isane smiled, "Hold your Zanpakutō out in front of you and picture the Senkaimon in your mind. Then push your Zanpakutō forwards like you're putting a key in a lock."

Tōshirō obeyed, closing his eyes and pushing his Zanpakutō forwards. Isane and Rangiku noted that the tip was slowly disappearing. "Alright," said Isane slowly, "Now turn your Zanpakutō ninety degrees counter-clockwise and say, "Unlock". That will open the Senkaimon."

Tōshirō, still with his eyes shut, twisted his Zanpakutō and commanded, "Open!"

The Senkaimon appeared as Tōshirō withdrew his Zanpakutō, and the three Shinigami entered, the doors closing behind them.

-RoI-

Tōshirō breathed in the smells of the Soul Society and smiled. Even though he had been there only the previous day, it felt like ages since he had last seen the Seireitei.

"There's a lot you need to do during the next month, Tōshirō-kun," said Isane suddenly, "Unohana-taichō wants to give you a check-up before you go to Hogwarts, Soifon-taichō requested your assistance with one of the Onmitsukidō's training exercises, and Yamamoto-sotaichō wished to speak with you as soon as you returned home about your visit to the World of the Living."

Tōshirō raised an eyebrow, "Oh? Guess I'll go see him at once then. Catch you later Isane-nee-chan, Rangiku-nee-chan!" He vanished in a Shunpō.

Rangiku tapped her cheek thoughtfully, "He really picked that up quickly didn't he?"

Isane smiled, "That he did. Now I have to be going. See you later, Rangiku-san."

-RoI-

Tōshirō's Shunpō carried him all the way to the First Division's barracks, and he walked into the main building on foot. No sense in making a scene when it wasn't necessary, after all. Opening Yamamoto's study door, he poked his head around the polished wood, "You wanted me, jiji?"

Yamamoto turned from where he had been standing on the balcony overlooking the Seireitei, "Ah, you have returned, Tōshirō."

Tōshirō nodded, cracking his neck as he dropped into a chair and frowned, "Yeah. I was lucky; I managed to make a friend _and_ find somewhere to sleep all at once."

Yamamoto moved over to his chair and sat down, "Tell me the story of your day."

Tōshirō allowed Hyōrinmaru to slide into his lap and began scratching his ears as he began to speak. When he was finished, Yamamoto looked vaguely concerned, "This reporter you mentioned; how much did you tell her?"

Tōshirō smiled, "I gave nothing away. I told her that I attended a school in Japan, where they taught me to use a sword. Hyōrinmaru was my familiar, and I had returned to Britain to be taught at Hogwarts. Even if she tries to research said "school", she won't come up with anything."

Yamamoto nodded, "Very well. You did excellently under the circumstances. What I am concerned about is what is Albus playing at? The way he is acting, it appears he is trying to exert some form of control over you."

Tōshirō shrugged, "I don't know why. He seems convinced I'm somebody I'm not; he insisted on calling me "Harry" instead of my real name which is Tōshirō. I was actually glad when he left because it meant I actually got to do what _I _wanted to do."

Yamamoto frowned, "You said that he was refusing to allow you to buy basic books. May I see these books, so that I may judge the decision for myself?"

Tōshirō nodded and took out his trunk. Yamamoto watched curiously as the boy first enlarged the trunk, then unlocked it and began rummaging, finally emerging with a small stack of books, which he placed on Yamamoto's desk.

Yamamoto picked up the Runes book which sat on top and flipped through it, "Hmm, it seems Albus' concerns were unfounded. I can't see why he wouldn't allow you to buy this."

Tōshirō shrugged, taking the books back and repacking them into his trunk, "I got the impression that he wasn't so much making sure I wasn't meddling with anything too advanced for me, more trying to limit what I know for some reason."

Yamamoto toyed with his beard, "Hmm, this bears extra thought. For now however, you have other things that need to be done before you leave for Hogwarts."

Tōshirō nodded, shrinking his trunk and pocketing it again, "Yeah, Isane-nee-chan told me a couple of them. Auntie Soifon wanted me to help her with the Onmitsukidō training exercises and Auntie Retsu wanted to give me a check-up."

Yamamoto nodded, "Indeed. You may go, Tōshirō."

Tōshirō nodded and stood up, but a couple more things occurred to him and he turned back, "By the way, I bought an owl while I was in Diagon Alley, but she can't come to Soul Society. Isane-nee-chan suggested I ask you if one of the Kidō Corps can place the same Kidō on her we place on the Jigokuchō so she can come here. I don't think it's fair to expect my friend to look after her all the time."

Yamamoto scratched his chin, "Hmm, yes it sounds feasible. I'll send a message to the Kidō Corps to get one of their members to accompany you to the World of the Living on the day of your departure for Hogwarts. He can place the Kidō and then return here. Was there anything else?"

Tōshirō nodded, "Yes, is it possible to manifest a Zanpakutō spirit in the physical world in some way? Because I just met mine and she seems very nice, plus she offered to teach me some unique techniques she used when she was still alive which have to do with ice manipulation."

Yamamoto blinked, "What do you mean "when she was still alive"? Zanpakutō spirits aren't human souls."

Tōshirō shook his head, "Normally they aren't. From what she told me, there are three different things that can happen to a soul. One, they become a Hollow and go to Hueco Mundo. Two, Konsō is performed and they come to the Soul Society. Third, if the soul is especially pure, they have a chance to become a Zanpakutō spirit. That's what happened to Haku-chan!"

Yamamoto thought about it. In truth, they had never thought about _where _Zanpakutō spirits came from, they just assumed that they were part of the wielder's soul. It had never occurred to anybody that they might be souls on their own.

After a moment he shook his head, "I'm afraid there isn't any such way yet, but I will have Kurotsuchi-taichō look into it."

Tōshirō nodded, "Fine. I'll see you later then jiji." He left the room.

-RoI-

**One week later.**

"MOVE IT; MOVE IT; MOVE IT! THE PACKAGE HAS BEEN STOLEN!"

A team of Onmitsukidō sprang across the roofs of the Seireitei after a small hooded figure carrying a box, while behind them their superior sighed and shook her head in disappointment.

Soifon had assigned a team of Onmitsukidō to guard a box of candy in the Second Division barracks while Tōshirō Hitsugaya attempted to break in and steal it. It should've been easy to stop the boy; they were after all trained professionals and he was eleven. All the same however, the exercise didn't quite end the way Soifon had hoped it would. Tōshirō had snuck in, stolen the box and got out again without being detected, and the Onmitsukidō had only realized the package was gone when one of their number sneezed and jogged the table it should have been resting on.

Now Tōshirō bounded from rooftop to rooftop with the box of candy held tightly in his hands. Now to execute the second part of the test; fighting an opponent with special abilities.

Twisting in mid-jump so that he was facing his pursuers, he brought up one hand and shouted, "Sensatsu Suishō!" (Thousand Flying Water Needles of Death)

A haze of icy mist formed between Tōshirō and his pursuers, before coalescing into a swarm of needles which then shot towards the Onmitsukidō.

Two raised their hands and balls of red fire collided with the needles, blasting a path through the storm of sharp objects. Tōshirō smirked, "Too slow!" and disappeared in a Shunpō.

-RoI-

They gathered back at the Second Division, where Soifon stood in front of her subordinates that had been chasing Tōshirō with a _very _displeased expression. Her tapping foot didn't help in the slightest.

"So," she said, and the team that had unsuccessfully attempted to apprehend him quailed where they stood, "Not only did you fail the exercise, but you failed it so monumentally I am surprised any of you have made it this far as Onmitsukidō. Tōshirō not only managed to infiltrate the HQ without being detected by _any _of you, but he managed to steal the package without any of you suspecting a thing. It was only a fluke you actually realized it was gone! About the only thing you did right during the whole exercise was using Hadō to counter his attack, even if it was just a distraction so that he could escape using Shunpō!"

While this remonstration was going on, Tōshirō was sitting in Retsu Unohana's office, being subjected to a medical check-up. The black-haired female was currently examining a sheet of paper, "You seem fine. You're alright to leave now, Tōshirō-kun."

Tōshirō nodded and pulled his kosode back over his head before retying his obi around his waist. As he turned to leave, he noticed a small boy sitting behind the door, also wearing a shihakusho and with a Zanpakutō lying on the ground at his side.

"Auntie Retsu, who's he?" he asked, looking around at the dark-haired captain.

Unohana smiled, "Tōshirō-kun, I'd like to introduce you to my adopted son, Dastan. Dastan-kun, this is Tōshirō Hitsugaya."

The boy raised his head from his book, revealing black eyes beneath a long fringe of sandy blond hair. "Hello,"

Tōshirō was startled; the boy's mannerisms were more advanced than he had thought they would be for such a young child.

His shock must have shown on his face, because the boy suddenly smiled a gap-toothed grin and said, "My appearance shocks you, doesn't it? Don't worry; everybody reacts like this the first time."

Tōshirō cast Unohana a quizzical look. The woman smiled before explaining, "Dastan-kun's Zanpakutō has a very unique Shikai; anything it cuts will regress in age. Much like Izuru Kira's Zanpakutō Wabisuke increases the weight of whatever it cuts; Dastan-kun's Zanpakutō allows him control of time."

Tōshirō snorted, "Somehow I doubt that."

The child gave a single sweet smile and stood up, drawing his Zanpakutō, "Taiko, Sunadokei," (Regress, Hourglass)

The sword changed only slightly; the guard morphed into a clock face. Dastan smirked before making one quick slash across Tōshirō's chest.

Almost instantly, Tōshirō's muscles locked up.

"What," grunted Tōshirō, struggling against the paralytic effect, "What did you do to me…?"

Dastan smirked, "That is the power of Sunadokei. With one cut, I paralyze my enemy, and then I do this;"

He held up the sword so that Tōshirō could see the clock face before turning back the hour hand an hour.

Tōshirō felt his body shrink as Dastan continued to turn it back. Finally he lay on the floor; a tiny, silver-haired baby with an absolutely indignant expression on his face.

"Turn me back at once!" he ordered.

Dastan bent over him, his voice mocking as he spoke, "Say _please_…"

Tōshirō's response was a stream of abuse that should never issue from the mouth of a one-year-old child.

Unohana set a hand on her adoptive son's head, "Please release the effect, Dastan-kun. Tōshirō-kun has other things to do before he leaves."

Dastan looked disappointed, but sheathed his Zanpakutō. Tōshirō instantly returned to his former size.

Without another word, he bid Unohana goodbye and left.

-RoI-

**Another week later.**

"So I guess this is goodbye until at least Christmas," said Tōshirō.

Yamamoto, leaning on his staff, nodded, "Indeed. We'll see you then, Tōshirō.

Tōshirō smiled as he took a few steps past Yamamoto to greet the others.

"Nemu-chan, if Mayuri-teme gives you trouble, remember I'm just a call away on my Denreishinki (Divine Messenger Machine) and I can be in the Senkaimon in five minutes."

The lieutenant of the Twelfth Division nodded and smiled as Tōshirō hugged her before moving on.

"Hanatarō, don't let the Eleventh Division shove you around anymore, alright?"

Squad Four's Seventh Seat nodded as they bumped fists. Tōshirō had more or less taken Hanatarō under his wing when he came across five members of Squad Eleven harassing him. Once they had been driven off by the sudden, unholy pranking spree, Tōshirō had gotten Hanatarō on his feet and started teaching him how to stand up to others.

Now, three years later, Hanatarō had grown a lot more confident and started doing a lot more training with offensive Kidō with the reasoning that if he ever found himself in a combat situation, even if his Zanpakutō wasn't the most battle-oriented one he should at least be able to fire off a basic Hadō.

It proved a very unpleasant surprise for the next gang of Eleventh Division guys to try and pick on his team while they were going about their tasks. No matter how tough you insist you are, having a Hadō #4: Byakurai give you a buzz-cut in passing has a _very _intimidating effect.

Moving on, Tōshirō smirked at Ikkaku Madarame and Yumichika Ayasegawa, "Keep training you two, alright?"

The pair grinned, recognizing the hidden message behind the words. In the whole of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads, Tōshirō was the only person who knew the secrets both kept; namely Ikkaku's Bankai and the true form of Yumichika's Zanpakutō. It had taken a very large quantity of candy from both before Tōshirō promised to stay silent.

After hugging Yachiru goodbye, Tōshirō turned to face the member of the Kidō Corps who was to accompany him to the World of the Living to place the Kidō on Tsuki, "You ready to go?"

The man said nothing; he just nodded and stepped forwards. Tōshirō grinned and turned to face the Senkaimon, "Then let's go!"

Yamamoto nodded to the two guards on either side of the Senkaimon, who moved forwards and began to open it.

With one last wave, Tōshirō passed through into the Senkaimon, the member of the Kidō Corps following close behind him.

-RoI-

Tōshirō emerged from the Senkaimon outside King's Cross Station and looked around as the Kidō Corps member appeared right behind him.

A second passed before a snowy owl fluttered up behind him and settled on his shoulder with a soft hoot.

"Hey, Tsuki-chan," said Tōshirō, raising a hand to stroke the bird's back, "Where's Hermione?"

"Right behind you," said a voice.

Tōshirō turned around and grinned at the brunette, "Hello Hermione,"

Hermione beamed, "Hello, Tōshirō. Who's this?"

Tōshirō turned to the Kidō Corps member and said, "You know I mentioned the other week that I needed to get that unique Kidō on my owl? Well this is the guy who's going to do it."

Hermione nodded and said, "It's nice to meet you."

The Kidō Corps member said nothing. Tōshirō looked embarrassed, "He doesn't speak English." He toyed with the amulet around his neck for a second, "I'll translate."

He turned to the Kidō Corps member and spoke in Japanese, "She says it's nice to meet you."

The Kidō Corps returned the greeting and then pointed at Tsuki, "Is this the owl I am supposed to place the Kidō on?"

When Tōshirō nodded, the man began to move through slow hand seals and mutter under his breath.

"What is he doing?" asked Hermione.

Tōshirō shrugged, "I would guess he's placing the Kidō on her."

It took a further five minutes, but the Kidō was finally finished and the Kidō Corps member took his leave, walking off around the corner to open a Senkaimon.

Tōshirō and Hermione met Hermione's parents as they were pulling her trunk out of their car and walked into the station. It was then that they ran into a slight problem; namely they didn't know how to get onto the platform. Thankfully both had arrived half an hour early, so they decided to look around for any sign of the platform.

They weren't successful. They met up under one of the large arches between platforms nine and ten, both with worried expressions. "I don't get it," said Tōshirō, running a hand through his hair, "There should at least be a sign or something." He slumped back against the pillar…

…and went straight through the brickwork, hitting the ground on the other side with a thud and jarring his elbow.

Hermione blinked, not quite able to believe that her friend had just leaned against a brick wall and gone straight through it. A second later Tōshirō reappeared through the bricks and grinned, "Found it. Come on!" He caught her arm and pulled her towards the bricks.

Hermione cast her parents a puzzled look before following Tōshirō through the wall, quickly finding herself looking at a scarlet train and a sign saying _Platform Nine-and-Three-Quarters_.

Her parents appeared a minute later with her trunk on a trolley, looking surprised. Her father cast the arch a look and muttered, "I'm fairly certain this is in violation of the laws of physics or something…"

They quickly located an empty compartment and Hermione then headed off the train again to say goodbye to her parents while Tōshirō took advantage of the free moment to have a little nap.

When the train began to move away, Tōshirō and Hermione leaned out of the window to wave goodbye to her parents until the train rounded a bend and they were lost to view.

They were on their way to Hogwarts.

**(A/N: Sorry I seem to have dropped off the grid when it comes to updates, but since Kunai finished I've sort of hit a rut. I'm sincerely hoping that that doesn't mean I'm starting to lose my Muse (dear Kami I'm rapping! There's no hope for me!), because it would be so irksome if my stories were to die like that. As such I have no idea when my next update will be, but I hope it will be soon. Until then, this is Leonineus saying GOODNIGHT!)**

**A/N 2: Oh and the OC Dastan is not actually my creation. He is the creation of a fellow author, one Ace6151, who has given me permission to utilize his OCs in this story and a couple of my others. He's always on the lookout for people who are willing to take his OCs and use them, so if you are an author you might want to drop him a line and ask.)**


	4. Hogwarts

Reign of Ice

Chapter Four: Hogwarts

The first part of the trip to Hogwarts passed without any real incident. Hermione sat in her seat reading a book while Tōshirō napped opposite her.

The peace was soon interrupted as a loud beeping noise issued from Tōshirō's pocket, causing him to sit bolt upright and scrabble at his pocket for something. He quickly withdrew some sort of mobile phone and flipped it open.

Hermione watched as a frown appeared on his face before he flipped it shut and looked up at her, "I need the bathroom. Back in a little while." He left, taking his sword and Hyōrinmaru with him.

Hermione stared after him for a minute before shrugging and returning to her book.

Another minute later she suddenly noticed that it had gone dark in the compartment. Looking up to see what was blocking the light, she gasped.

A monster was flying directly at the train. It had four legs, each ending in a paw with two-foot-long talons, a horrible mask over its face with teeth as large as her splayed hand and a wingspan that would have dwarfed a small plane. A large hole was visible on its chest, through which she could see the blue sky behind it. Terrible bright yellow eyes glittered as they surveyed the train carriages before settling on _her_. It opened its toothy mouth and uttered a terrifying screaming roar that Hermione was forced to cover her ears to block out. As she watched, the monster coming closer and closer by the second, a huge dragon made out of ice suddenly flew up from further along the train and struck the monster in the side, knocking it off its collision course with the train.

The dragon retreated as the monster turned to face its new attacker, and in an odd blurring movement a silver-haired figure appeared, a sword in its hand and a smaller version of the first dragon coiled around its neck.

"…_Is that Tōshirō?" _Hermione wondered, _"What's he doing?"_

Resolving to ask him these questions when he returned, she settled in to watch the battle.

Tōshirō suddenly seemed to flicker out of existence, reappearing behind the flying monster as one of its wings suddenly came off in a spray of black ichor. A few seconds later it seemed to regenerate and whirl in midair, swinging one of its clawed feet at Tōshirō.

Hermione's hands flew to her mouth, but Tōshirō simply flickered over to behind the monster's head and brought both hands up, palms out towards the back of its skull. A ball of what looked like blue lightning shot from his hands a second later and blasted a massive hole through its chest, killing it almost instantly.

As the monster seemed to crumble into ash, Tōshirō returned his sword to its sheath and vanished in the now-familiar blur.

-RoI-

Tōshirō walked back through the door with a slightly satisfied expression to find Hermione still staring out of the window. "Something wrong?" he asked.

Hermione looked around at him with a look of shock on her face, "How did you do that?"

Tōshirō frowned, _"She couldn't have seen… could she?"_

Covering his confusion he asked, "Do what?"

Hermione jabbed a finger at the window, "That! How did you kill that monster? How did you shoot that lightning? How did you move around like that? And above all, _how did you fly_?"

Tōshirō frowned before putting his ability to think on his feet to work, "Right, I guess I'd better explain." He sat down and rested his sword against the seat beside him, "This is stuff I learnt while I was in Japan. I'm putting a lot of faith in you by telling you this; I want you to promise you won't tell anybody else. The school stays private for a reason, and I'm only telling you because you need to understand how important this is."

Hermione nodded, "Got it."

Tōshirō sat back in his chair, "One of the things I learnt in Japan was that there exists across both the magical and non-magical worlds a magical beast known as a Hollow. It's basically a leech, it devours the magical cores of the people it manages to catch and kills them. It does this to become stronger. They're monsters, relying solely on instinct, endlessly hungering for magic to fill the empty hole within but it never fills them up; they just keep trying to fill the empty hole within forever more."

He held out a hand and began to finger the hilt of his Zanpakutō, "Swords like these are given to those who are read in on the existence of the Hollows, so that they may fight them off wherever they encounter them."

Hermione nodded, "What about that lightning you hit it with?"

Tōshirō smiled, "That is what's known as a Kidō. Kidō is Japanese, meaning "demon way" or "spirit way". There are three sub-types to Kidō. What I used is known as a Hadō, which means "Way of Destruction". These spells range from simply blasting someone back to throwing a fireball. One of the really high-level ones involves trapping your opponent in a box and then driving spikes through the box, like an iron maiden."

Hermione shivered at the thought, "What about the rest?"

Tōshirō nodded, "The second sub-type of Kidō is called Bakudō, or the "Way of Binding". Stand up a second."

Hermione blinked but stood up. Tōshirō stood in front of her and raised a hand, "Bakudō no Ichi: Sai!" (Restrain)

Hermione suddenly felt an inexorable force pull her arms behind her back and hold them there, resisting all attempts to move them.

"This," Tōshirō said as he stood in front of her, "is the first Bakudō, the weakest. Give me a second and I'll break it again."

Hermione twisted away from him, "No wait, I got it."

Tōshirō blinked, "Wait, you don't want to- Hermione, don't do it, you'll just cause damage to your… how did you do that?"

Hermione had started twisting her arms slightly, trying to get as much torque as she could on the invisible bonds. A second later there was a loud snapping noise and her arms came free.

Hermione frowned, "What happened? Was I not supposed to…?"

Tōshirō shook his head, "No! You were just lucky that I didn't put too much magic into that spell, you might have lost an arm if I had put any more in!"

Hermione frowned, "That wasn't too much power? It felt powerful enough to me!"

Tōshirō shook his head, "That wouldn't have even held back the weakest of Hollows."

Privately he thought, _"First she could see me fighting the Hollow when I wasn't in my gigai, then she broke through a Bakudō, albeit a heavily weakened one. I'm beginning to suspect that there's more to Hermione than meets the eye…"_

His phone went off. "Hang on," he said, "I've got to take this call." He pulled out his phone and left the compartment again. Hermione heard him speaking in Japanese before the door closed again.

Tōshirō leaned against the wall mid way down the corridor and held the phone to his ear, "Hello, Tōshirō Hitsugaya speaking."

A voice issued through the speaker, "Hey Tōshirō; it's Akon. We've got a question for you."

Tōshirō nodded, "Fire away."

There was a pause before Akon said, "We received a reading earlier, apparently an Adjuchas-class Hollow attacked the train."

Tōshirō stood up, "What? That was an Adjuchas? I didn't reali- WAIT A MINUTE! My Denreishinki (Divine Messenger Machine) didn't register it as an Adjuchas; it said it was a regular Hollow!"

Akon's voice was serious on the other end, "Well I'm looking at the computer screen right now, and it says ADJUCHAS in nice big letters. So either your Denreishinki needs a tune-up or somebody's messing with your gear."

Tōshirō scowled, not liking the idea. The implications were serious. He had been lucky that this was merely an everyday run-of-the-mill _Hollow_, albeit an Adjuchas-class one. If his Denreishinki said it was an average, weak _Hollow_, but it eventually turned out to be a Vasto Lorde _Menos Grande_, a lot of innocent people could get hurt.

"Well I killed the Adjuchas. It wasn't that difficult a challenge."

"All the same," said Akon seriously on the other end, "If there is somebody messing with your Denreishinki, they'll know now that sending anything less than a Vasto Lorde-class Hollow is a waste of time. Next time it might be more of a challenge."

Tōshirō nodded, "I get it. Mind reporting the possibility of somebody tampering with my equipment to Yamamoto-sotaichō and then monitoring my gear? Maybe whoever is tampering is leaving traces of what they're doing and who they are."

"Way ahead of you man. You just get back to making sure nobody gets used as Monster Munch today, no pun intended."

Tōshirō grinned, "Already on it. Catch you later, Akon." He flipped the phone shut and walked off back towards the compartment.

He didn't notice the blond-haired boy watching him from further along the corridor.

-RoI-

Tōshirō and Hermione were having a quiet conversation when the door slid back and a blond boy entered, flanked by two other boys who were quite a bit bigger than him. "Hello," sneered the boy, "I think there is some foreign dirt in this compartment, and I'm here to clean it out."

Tōshirō simply raised his legs into the air, "Then bring in the broom, I think there's a large dust ball under the seat." He glanced over at Hermione, "Hermione, recite your ten times table in Japanese."

Hermione looked up at the ceiling and said, "Jū, Nijū, Sanjū, Yonjū, Gojū, Rokujū, Nanajū, Hachijū, Kyūjū, Hyaku." (Ten, Twenty, Thirty, Forty, Fifty, Sixty, Seventy, Eighty, Ninety, One Hundred.)

Tōshirō nodded, "Good, now your nine times table."

Hermione frowned and chewed her lip in thought before brightening, "Kyū, Jūhachi, Nijūnana, Sanjūroku, Yonjūgo, Gojūyon, Rokujūsan, Nanajūni, Hachijūichi, Kyūjū." (Nine, Eighteen, Thirty-Six… you know the rest unless you're a moron and flunked out of school.)

The blond boy turned to Hermione, "So you're the foreign dirt then?"

Hermione shook her head, "No, I'm English by birth."

The blond turned to Tōshirō, who still hadn't raised his head from his book, "Then you are? What's your name, foreigner?"

Tōshirō kept his eyes fixed on his book, "Tōshirō Hitsugaya. And you are?"

The boy drew himself up, "My name is Malfoy, Draco Malfoy."

Tōshirō still didn't look at him, instead glancing over at Hermione, "Bond fan much?"

Hermione laughed, recognizing the reference Tōshirō was making. They had had an opportunity to watch a James Bond film after eating dinner the night Tōshirō had stayed at her house, and Tōshirō had thoroughly enjoyed it.

Malfoy drew himself up, "Look at me when I'm talking to you, foreigner!"

Tōshirō smirked, returning to his book without looking in Malfoy's direction, "Already took a look. I'm not impressed, and if you think those two lumps are scary think again. You can't scare a kid who messes with the fiercest fighters in Japan for a mild workout."

Malfoy advanced into the compartment, "Wait until my father hears about this; he's on the Hogwarts' Board of Governors! He can have you expelled easily!"

Tōshirō snorted, "Yeah right. I'm only here because I have a job at Hogwarts besides learning to use magic. If I didn't, I wouldn't be here."

Malfoy's face twisted into an even more prominent sneer, "Well too bad then." He abruptly turned to Hermione, "You, your name, _now_."

Hermione looked up, "Hermione Granger."

Malfoy thought for a second, "I don't recognize the name. What do they do?"

Hermione sat up a little straighter, "They're dentists."

"Dentists?" said Malfoy incredulously, "Those Muggle teeth doctors? You're a _Mudblood_!"

Neither Tōshirō nor Hermione knew what a Mudblood was, but both knew it was nothing good by the way Malfoy had said the name.

Tōshirō closed his book and set it down before standing and facing Malfoy. Malfoy's lip curled into a malicious sneer until he discovered that Tōshirō's size had been deceiving while he was still seated; standing up he was taller than Crabbe and Goyle.

Tōshirō raised one hand in front of his face, all but his index and middle fingers curled in before he suddenly made a slashing motion and said, "Bakudō no Ichi: Sai!"

Instantly all three's arms flew up behind their backs. Malfoy struggled for a second, "What did you do to me?"

Tōshirō smirked, "A little wandless magic, buddy. Now get out of this compartment before I bundle you out of here."

Malfoy didn't move, so Tōshirō placed one finger against his chest and pushed hard. The blond boy stumbled backwards out of the compartment, where something very strange suddenly happened.

A sudden blur shot past the windows and hit Malfoy squarely in the side of the head with both its feet, propelling him off past the compartment. **(A/N: Any Naruto fan will recognize this move, though it isn't a jutsu in this. One word: YOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUTH!)**

Tōshirō blinked and leaned forwards to look where Malfoy had gone. He was lying on the floor being beaten into unconsciousness by somebody.

"Maia!" Tōshirō turned to see another boy approaching. He was carrying two large trunks which obscured his face, but Tōshirō could tell that he was frowning, "Stop beating on him just because he's a prejudiced little idiot."

The person beating on Malfoy stood up, scowling, "Little bastard, just because somebody's Muggleborn he thinks…"

Her voice trailed off into irritable mutters as she turned around. Tōshirō saw a fair-skinned face framed by long blond hair pulled into a French braid, azure eyes glittered from a face that he could tell was of Nordic descent at a glance.

Giving a disdainful sniff, the girl brushed a strand of her hair out of her eyes and smiled at Tōshirō, "Hello, I'm Maia Stevenson."

Tōshirō nodded to her in greeting, "Tōshirō Hitsugaya." He turned to the other boy, "Want some help there?"

The other boy nodded, "Yes… thanks…"

Tōshirō leaned over and pulled the trunk off the top. It instantly plunged towards the floor and landed on Tōshirō's foot with a loud and painful _crunch_.

-RoI-

Hermione looked up as she heard a loud howl of pain from out in the corridor. Recognizing Tōshirō's voice, she leapt up and ran out of the compartment.

She found Tōshirō hopping around holding his foot in pain and two unfamiliar people watching him, "What happened?"

Tōshirō didn't say anything, instead turning to the girl behind him and saying, "What do you have in there, _bricks_?"

Maia shook her head, "No… just my cauldron; school books; clothes; etcetera."

Tōshirō frowned, setting his foot gingerly back on the floor, "Well obviously there must be _something_ in there to make it weigh half a ton!"

"Well actually," said the boy quietly, basic laws of gravity and physics would dictate that the trunk would have sped up as it approached the ground, thus the force with which it landed on your foot would have multiplied by the time the trunk hit your foot. It probably would not have gained enough force to crush the bones in your foot however; it would simply feel like you have just had your foot crushed. Hence the reason you are jumping around and whimpering like a little girl with a booboo right now but can still stand on that foot without _crying_ like a little girl with a booboo. Most likely you simply neglected to compensate for the weight of the trunk before you took it off the top."

Hermione and Maia both giggled quietly to each other as Tōshirō stared blankly at the other boy before Hermione said, "Anyway, would you two like to come back to our compartment?"

Maia smiled, "That would be nice. Thank you."

The two girls headed off, leaving Tōshirō standing next to Maia's trunk and the other boy holding his own.

A few seconds passed as the two boys watched them leave before Tōshirō turned to the other boy and scanned his appearance with a careful eye.

He had reddish-orange hair like magma, pulled into a long braid at the nape of his neck, one blue eye and one red eye and bright blue tribal markings across his face and just visible under the sleeves of his shirt.

Once he had taken all this in, Tōshirō covered his brief appraisal of the other male by saying, "So what's your name?"

The boy grinned, "Aaron Chase Ellis, nice to meet you." He balanced his trunk on his left arm and stuck out his right hand.

Tōshirō shook it, "Tōshirō Hitsugaya. Now let's catch up with those two before they have a brain summit and work out how to take over the world with three coat hangers and a piece of string."

-RoI-

When the two boys dragged the trunks into the compartment, they found Hermione and Maia cooing over something in Maia's lap. Once both had stashed the trunks in the overhead racks they leaned over to see what the two girls were looking at.

Tōshirō leapt back a second later with a yell of "Ahh, it's a white rat!"

Hermione saw a tick mark appear on Maia's forehead before her left arm blurred into motion; quicker than the eye could track Tōshirō was hunched over Maia's elbow that had been jammed at high speed into his abdomen. "It's an ermine, you jerk, and she's my friend! Got that?"

Tōshirō gave a loud gasp for breath, "I'm sorry… it won't happen again."

As he collapsed into a chair and looked up he saw her giving him an angelically sweet look that didn't deceive him in the slightest, having seen it on Unohana countless times back in the Seireitei. It was a look that promised utter pain for the target, horrors beyond human imagination.

It didn't faze Tōshirō at all, something which Aaron looked very shocked by when he saw Tōshirō's calm expression. "How do you do that? She's been using that look on me since we were small children and it always scares the crap out of me. How does that not terrify you too?"

Tōshirō chuckled, "I grew up in a school where the infirmary is overseen by a woman who can scare a grown man into acquiescing to getting blood taken just by smiling at him and blinking once. She," he nodded at Maia, "has nothing I haven't seen a thousand times in the past, and she's about as terrifying as a kitten by comparison."

Hermione decided to change the subject, "So how do you two know each other?"

Aaron smirked, "We've been friends since childhood, and after my mother died in June I moved in with her family. They were a little shocked to discover that we were both magical."

Maia laughed, "Yeah, surprised is an understatement. Hey, remember when that bully tried to steal my lunch money and he ended up hanging off the flagpole on top of the school by the gusset of his pants?"

Aaron grinned, "Oh yes, good old Michael Jordan. I think that was the day we met wasn't it?"

Maia thought, "Yeah it was. I don't think it was my accidental magic that put him up there come to think of it. You always did have a head for heights. Come to think of it, where's Takashi?"

Aaron suddenly stood up, "Oh yeah, I forgot about her!" He opened the window and stuck two fingers in his mouth, quickly emitting a piercing shriek of a whistle that sounded like the call of some monstrous bird of prey.

A few seconds later he grinned, "There she is. There's my Takashi."

Everyone looked out the window and saw a large red-tailed hawk with tawny feathers flying alongside the train, regarding them through the window with a bright eye. Aaron grinned and leaned up against the window before seeming to engage the bird in conversation.

Hermione stared at him for a minute before she said, "That's just like Gandalf the Grey!"

Aaron turned and smirked at her, "Well since I _am_ descended from him, it's somewhat my prerogative to be able to speak the bird-tongue."

Hermione stared blankly at him for a long moment before she stuck a finger in her ear, "Could you say that again? I could've sworn I heard you say you were descended from Gandalf."

Aaron nodded, "I am. Come on, do you really believe that Tolkien came up with all that on his own? Nope, he's distantly related to me too and he used his access to the family archives to get the information on Middle-Earth so he could write those books."

Tōshirō looked puzzled, "I don't know what you're talking about."

Maia pulled her trunk down and produced a thick book from its depths, "Here. It's my copy, but you can borrow it as long as you look after it."

Tōshirō inspected the book, _"The Hobbit _and _The Lord of the Rings_ Complete Edition? Sounds interesting." He flipped open the cover and started reading.

"So," said Hermione, somehow producing a notepad and pen from nowhere, "Do you know anybody else who's descended from people in Middle-Earth?"

Maia grinned, "Elrohir and Elladan."

Hermione clapped her hands together, "That means you're related to Arwen and Elrond!"

Maia nodded, "Yes."

Hermione sat forwards in her chair and said, "Do you know anybody else?"

Aaron shook his head, "Not at the moment."

Hermione suddenly shivered, "Do you think the Balrog still exists?"

Aaron chuckled, "I don't know. Hopefully not."

Hermione smiled and they resumed their original conversation, leaving Tōshirō to read his way steadily through the book. At one point Hermione asked if it was difficult because he wasn't yet fluent in English, but Tōshirō simply shrugged and reminded her that while he could fully understand what the book said thanks to the charmed amulet he wore, he was also still able to learn the words; but he would still occasionally stop reading to ask Hermione what a word meant.

The rest of the journey passed in this fashion, and soon they could see a great lake ahead of them, with a tall building on the hill above.

-RoI-

They changed into their robes (Aaron producing a staff about four and a half feet long and made of some kind of white wood from his trunk as well, which he claimed was actually his wand but needed to find a shrinking charm for that could reduce it to a size useful for casting in class without hitting people) and waited for the train to stop before leaving their trunks where they were (or more accurately Hermione, Maia and Aaron left their trunks where they were; Tōshirō would sooner leave his Zanpakutō behind than his trunk, and that wasn't very likely in itself).

It was while they were standing in a group on the platform that Tōshirō saw a huge figure moving towards them with a lantern and yelling, "Firs' years! Firs' years over 'ere!"

Tōshirō beckoned to the other three and led them across after the huge figure.

They boarded small boats to cross the huge lake, and soon found themselves walking up the grassy grounds towards the castle.

They entered through the front doors and were given a quick speech about the different houses at Hogwarts before being shepherded into a room off what seemed to be the main eating hall to wait for the Sorting to commence.

Tōshirō had an arm around Hermione, who had become steadily more anxious as they neared the castle, and was now reciting passages from _Hogwarts: a History _to herself in an attempt to calm herself down.

Aaron and Maia were having a whispered conversation. Sullr was nuzzling her mistress's cheek, while Takashi had settled on her owner's shoulder and was looking about. Tōshirō had Tsuki on one shoulder and Hyōrinmaru wrapped around his neck with his head resting on the other shoulder, and was attracting a lot of odd glances as a result.

It was about ten minutes after they had been left in the room that Tōshirō saw a multitude of spirits issue through the back wall. His fingers twitched towards his Zanpakutō, itching to start performing Konsō, but he knew he couldn't until he could clarify that he was permitted to.

-RoI-

It was another ten minutes later that the woman returned, leading them into the hall. Tōshirō and his friends were at the front of the line, so he led the rest of the first-years into the hall with his head held high. He could almost feel numerous eyes tracking him, wondering who the mysterious silver-haired boy with the sword, dragon and snowy owl was.

The tall woman made them gather at the front of the hall in front of the staff table. Tōshirō could sense Dumbledore concentrating on him, but did not look up as a rip near the brim of a patched and frayed hat the woman had just set down opened and the hat began to speak.

'_Oh, you my not think I'm pretty,_

_But don't judge on what you see,_

_I'll eat myself if you can find_

_A smarter hat than me._

_You can keep your bowlers black,_

_Your top hats sleek and tall,_

_For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat_

_And I can cap them all._

_There's nothing hidden in your head,_

_The Sorting Hat can't see,_

_So try me on and I will tell you,_

_Where you ought to be._

_You might belong in Gryffindor,_

_Where dwell the brave at heart,_

_Their daring, nerve and chivalry_

_Set Gryffindors apart;_

_You might belong in Hufflepuff,_

_Where they are just and loyal,_

_Those patient Hufflepuffs are true_

_And unafraid of toil;_

_Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,_

_If you've a ready mind,_

_Where those of wit and learning,_

_Will always find their kind;_

_Or perhaps in Slytherin,_

_You'll make your real friends,_

_Those cunning folk use any means,_

_To achieve their ends._

_So put me on! Don't be afraid!_

_And don't get in a flap!_

_You're in safe hands (though I have none)_

_For I'm a Thinking Cap!'_

Tōshirō looked around as the rest of the hall applauded before joining in himself. Following his example the other first-years joined in too.

Once the applause had died down the woman stepped forwards again and unrolled a scroll, "When I call your name you will put on the Hat and sit on the stool to be Sorted. When the Hat announces your house you will go and sit at the appropriate table. Abbott, Hannah!"

A redheaded girl scurried forwards and put on the Hat. There was a pause and then the Hat shouted, "HUFFLEPUFF!"

And on it went.

"Bones, Susan!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Boot, Terry!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Brocklehurst, Mandy!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Brown, Lavender!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Bulstrode, Millicent!"

"SLYTHERIN!"

"Corner, Michael!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Crabbe, Vincent!"

"SLYTHERIN!"

"Davis, Tracy!"

"SLYTHERIN!"

"Ellis, Aaron!"

Aaron walked forwards slowly, the butt-end of his staff clunking against the floor with every other step. He sat down on the stool and the woman lowered the hat onto his head. There was a pause.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

The table off to one side cheered and clapped. Aaron gave Tōshirō, Hermione and Maia a thumbs-up for walking off to that table.

"Finch-Fletchly, Justin!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Finnegan, Seamus!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Goldstein, Anthony!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Goyle, Gregory!"

"SLYTHERIN!"

"Granger, Hermione!"

Hermione was shaking as Tōshirō gave her a gentle nudge forwards. She moved slowly forwards and sat down. The Hat seemed to take a moment to deliberate before it shouted, "RAVENCLAW!"

Hermione stood up, beaming at Tōshirō as she moved off to the table that was applauding her.

"Greengrass, Daphne!"

"SLYTHERIN!"

"Hitsugaya, Tōshirō!"

Tōshirō walked quietly to the stool, knowing that everybody was observing him curiously. He slowly sat down on the stool and allowed the Hat to settle over his head, Hyōrinmaru and Tsuki moving aside slightly to permit it.

"Well, well, a Shinigami here at Hogwarts, eh? Ah, I can see the power in you. Now, I can't work out where to put you… you're loyal enough for Hufflepuff, brave enough for Gryffindor and cunning enough for Slytherin, but I think your most outstanding trait is your…"

"What's taking so long?" shouted Malfoy from the group of first-years, "Is the Hat telling him he should go home to his own country, because he should hurry up and get out of here already; he's holding up the Sorting!"

Unable to see due to the Hat covering his eyes, Tōshirō relied on his ability to sense reiryoku and raised a hand, "Hadō no Sanjūichi: Shakkahō!"

A ball of flames shot over Malfoy's head and guttered out against the opposite wall. Tōshirō gave the blond a predatory smile, "Bear in mind Malfoy; that was a near miss. Next time I might be tempted _not_ to miss. Please continue, Mr. Hat."

"Right," muttered the Hat, "As I was saying, your most outstanding trait is your intellect and your thirst for knowledge. Therefore I think the house most suited to you would be… RAVENCLAW!"

The table on one side of the room exploded into applause as Tōshirō removed the hat, handed it to the stunned woman and walked over to the Ravenclaw table, where he sat down next to Hermione and grinned at her.

The Sorting continued on.

"Longbottom, Neville!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"MacDougal, Morag!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Macmillan, Ernie!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Malfoy, Draco!"

"SLYTHERIN!"

"Moon, Lily!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Nott, Theodore!"

"SLYTHERIN!"

"Parkinson, Pansy!"

"SLYTHERIN!"

"Patil, Padma!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Patil, Parvati!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Perks, Sally-Anne!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Stevenson, Maia!"

Maia walked forwards slowly. Tōshirō and Hermione could both tell the blonde girl was shaking with fear. It was probably only Sullr sitting on her shoulder that allowed the girl to walk forwards and sit on the stool.

There was a pause while the Hat was lowered onto Maia's head, the ermine moving aside to allow it on, before it shouted, "HUFFLEPUFF!"

Maia moved off to her table, and the Sorting resumed.

"Thomas, Dean!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Turpin, Lisa!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Weasley, Ronald!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Zabini, Blaise!"

"SLYTHERIN!"

As the Hat and stool were carried off, Dumbledore stood up.

Tōshirō frowned as he eyed the man, one finger idly caressing the head of Hyōrinmaru who had by this point moved to his lap and lay curled up like a snake there.

"Greetings, new and old students," the old man began, "It is most gratifying to see you all here again, seated before me and ready to learn. Now before you sink your teeth into our usual delicious feast, I must give you a few notices. First of all, the Forbidden Forest is off-limits to everybody. Second, the third floor corridor on the right hand side is also out of bounds unless you wish to suffer a very painful death."

Tōshirō and Hermione exchanged glances, eyebrows raised.

Dumbledore continued, "Now, I realize you all must be hungry after such a long journey so I will simply say: Tuck in!"

The plates before them filled with food. Tōshirō quickly scanned the table and was disappointed to find no food that he recognized from home.

Hermione noticed, "Are you alright, Tōshirō?"

Tōshirō nodded and sighed, "Yes… I don't recognize any of this food though."

Hermione set her own fork down, "Well what's your favourite food back in Japan?"

Tōshirō frowned, "Watermelon and amanattō, which is a kind of candied bean. I don't like dried persimmons."

Hermione frowned as well, "Hmm, I don't think that would make a very good evening meal. More likely a snack at some point. Do you like dumplings?"

Tōshirō shrugged, "They're alright."

Hermione leaned over and picked up a plate of toad-in-the-hole, "Here. It's basically dumplings with sausage in them."

"What are they called?" said Tōshirō, picking one off the platter with his knife and fork.

"Toad-in-the-hole," said Hermione. Tōshirō dropped the item and leaned backwards as if burnt. She laughed, "It's just a name, Tōshirō. They're not actually made with toads."

Tōshirō nodded, retrieving the toad-in-the-hole before it rolled off his plate onto the table and cutting out a slice. He took a bite and smiled, "Delicious!" He took another and started eating.

As the meal continued on, the various first years began to talk about their families.

"I'm Muggleborn," said Hermione, "My parents are dentists, teeth doctors."

The fifth year sitting opposite them, who wore a badge with a large P on it on her robes, nodded and turned to Tōshirō, "And you…?"

Tōshirō swallowed some of his vegetables and set down his fork, "My name is Tōshirō Hitsugaya. I have no family; they were killed when I was only a baby. I might have relatives, but I don't know who they are. I was raised and educated in Japan, and I came back here to learn to use magic."

The prefect smiled, "What are schools in Japan like? Are they as good as Hogwarts?"

Tōshirō could identify the underlying meaning of her words; _why aren't you there?_

Clearing his throat and licking toad-in-the-hole crumbs off his lips he said, "The school I went to in Japan was very educational, but since I was originally born in England and my parents came here, we felt it was best that I followed in their footsteps and came here."

The Indian girl opposite him, who he remembered was called Padma Patil, leaned forwards, "Do you know who they were?"

Tōshirō shook his head, "No. I'm afraid not. Nobody ever told me."

The prefect frowned, "That's not nice. You should at least know their names."

He shrugged, "Doesn't really matter. After all, that woman back there said our house would be like our family during our years at Hogwarts, so I guess I'm not going to be alone."

Hermione noted her friend seemed to be a little morose, so she changed the subject. Addressing the prefect she asked, "I don't believe you told us your name?"

The prefect smiled, "I'm Penelope Clearwater. If any of you have a problem, tell me and I'll raise the point with the teachers."

She held out a hand to Tōshirō across the table, "I hope your time in Hogwarts will be rewarding. Despite what others may think I relish the opportunity for there to be more foreign blood in the school."

Tōshirō gave her a courteous nod before returning to his meal.

-RoI-

After the meal was over (Tōshirō's belt was feeling uncomfortably tight under his robes by that point), Penelope led Tōshirō, Hermione, Padma and the rest of the first-years up through the castle to the Ravenclaw dormitory, where she answered the eagle knocker's question and opened the door for them.

After saying goodnight to Hermione, Tōshirō walked up to the boy's dormitory. It was a light, airy space with a door leading to an outdoor balcony that Tōshirō could tell would be useful for making a quick exit in the event of a night-time Hollow attack.

Tōshirō quickly identified his bed; it was the only one without a trunk at the bottom. Tugging said trunk from his pocket and enlarging it (ignoring the startled cries from his roommates as he did so), Tōshirō opened it and quickly removed his nightclothes. Tugging the drapes down around the bed he leaned his Zanpakutō against the wall and quickly changed, slipping his Denreishinki under the pillow so that the beeping was muffled yet would instantly wake him.

"Goodnight," he commented idly as he lay down to sleep.

Three replies came back from his new roommates Terry Boot, Michael Corner and Anthony Goldstein, and Tōshirō lay down on his back under the covers, staring at the sapphire hangings above him and thinking.

"_What," _he thought idly, _"would tomorrow bring?"_

-RoI-

*camera rolls*

Tōshirō: And we have a very special surprise for you today. Because of the revelations of the lineages of two of our OCs (both courtesy of Ace6151, who also produced Dastan), we decided we needed to run an omake segment to explain it. Now, Aaron?

Aaron: Yes indeed dear readers, I am here to explain!

*A screen behind Aaron lights up, showing two different family trees. Aaron picks up a pointing stick and taps the first tree.*

Aaron: First up; my family tree. As was revealed in this chapter, I am descended from Gandalf, the legendary wizard also known as Olórin in Quenya Tengwar, Tharkun in the Dwarf-tongue and Mithrandir in Sindarin, through my mother's line; my father being an unknown Muggle that left my mother soon after she became pregnant. This is obvious by the various family heirlooms I possess.

Tōshirō: *still reading _The Hobbit_* Hey, he just got a sword called Glamdring, or the Foe-Hammer. Do you have that too?

Aaron: I might do. I'll have to check my Gringotts vault. For now however I have too much on my plate.

Maia: What about my line? You weren't going to forget me, _were you_?

Aaron: *gulps and shakes his head* No, of course not.

*He taps the second tree on the screen* Now, the family line of one Maia Stevenson. This is a rather odd line, as it is actually the product of the families of two prominent characters of Middle-Earth intermarrying, though whether this was accidental or deliberate remains to be seen. As you can see, Maia is descended from the twin sons of Elrond, Elrohir and Elladan. Their separate families merged a few generations down the line, making Maia the descendant of both brothers and Elrond Halfelven, as well as making her a relative of Arwen Undómiel, the Evenstar of her people!

Hermione: I must say, it would be amazing if I turned out to be related to be one of the Fellowship! Tōshirō too!

*Aaron coughs and looks furtive, Hermione catches the look*

Hermione: There's something you aren't telling us! Are we actually related to members of the Fellowship?

*Aaron opens his mouth but Leonineus appears in a puff of smoke*

Leonineus: NO SPOILERS!

Aaron: *cowers* Sorry!

Leonineus: Don't do it again. I need to keep _some_ secrets from my readers, or I'll pretty much give them most of the plot on a platter!

Tōshirō: Mind keeping it down? I'm trying to read here!

Leonineus: *shrugs* Oh well. I gotta go crash now because I was working through the night on this damn chapter. See you all in the next chapter! (To the audience) Now, on the latest chapter of Team ROOT, TEKNAM made a very good suggestion to me. Instead of working on all six of my current fics at once, he told me to instead work on two at a time, and if I got ideas for one of the others I should stockpile them until I started working on those fics. As a result the other fic I was working on beside Reign was Maelstrom, so if any of my readers for that story are reading this then that should hopefully be next to update. Now this is Leonineus saying GOODNIGHT! *disappears in a puff of smoke*

*camera stops rolling*

**(A/N: Until next time, loyal minions! (Read: fans))**


	5. Making Progress

Reign of Ice

Chapter Five: Making Progress

**(A/N: Hey all, it's Leonineus here again with another chapter of Reign of Ice! In the last chapter Tōshirō and Hermione arrived at Hogwarts, making some new friends in the process. In this chapter, we see their education begin. Enjoy!)**

Hermione woke early the next morning and headed down into the common room before the sun had fully risen. She was joined not half an hour later by Padma, and they had a brief conversation about what they would be learning in their first lessons.

The first-year Ravenclaw boys came down a little while after that and asked if either of them had seen Tōshirō because apparently he had got up very early since his bed was already made. Padma guessed that he was already down at breakfast, so they proceeded downstairs to see if she was right.

It turned out that Padma was partly wrong; Tōshirō turned up midway through breakfast with the excuse that he had gone for an early-morning jog and lost track of time. Aaron and Maia came over from their tables to say hello, and they had a few minutes of pleasant conversation before Penelope Clearwater approached to tell Aaron and Maia that their Heads of House were distributing their new timetables so they had to return to their own tables. Once they had left, Hermione engaged Penelope in a conversation about their new classes while Tōshirō returned to reading _The Hobbit_. When Padma called him on it, he explained that he'd never read it before and Maia had been kind enough to lend him her copy to read. Padma accepted this explanation and said no more about it.

After obtaining their timetables, they quickly discovered that their first lesson was Transfiguration with the Hufflepuffs, so they met up with Maia and left the Great Hall following Penelope's directions.

-RoI-

Professor McGonagall quickly demonstrated that she was not one to suffer fools in her classroom. It was that which initially won her Tōshirō's respect, and that respect only deepened as she explained the basics of Transfiguration in a clear-cut fashion that easily told of her years of experience teaching the subject.

Once McGonagall had finished her explanation, she started them off on transfiguring a match into a needle. Hermione, as Tōshirō had at least partially expected, managed to produce results within her first few tries, with Padma and the other Ravenclaw girls not far behind her.

Tōshirō got it next, however his success highlighted a weakness that he had not already seen; namely his lack of control over his reiryoku. It appeared that at present said control only extended to keeping his reiatsu at a manageable level, so as not to freeze everything within fifty feet of him. In contrast, his reiryoku itself was barely controlled at all.

It also seemed that magic itself only required a miniscule amount of reiryoku (perhaps why normal witches and wizards could not see Hollows), which may have been the reason why Tōshirō got the result that he did. Since he was used to pumping a lot of reiryoku into his Kidō and whatnot, he channelled far too much power into the spell and the match not only turned into a needle; it turned into a needle about fifteen feet long and weighing about as much as a small obelisk.

Tōshirō was barely quick enough to draw his Zanpakutō and raise it over his head in a blocking stance as the desk collapsed under the needle's weight and it crashed against his guard. Tōshirō's knees _almost_ buckled under the weight, but he just about held firm as the people sitting behind him cleared out.

"Can somebody," he said through gritted teeth, trying to stop the weight of the needle driving him to his knees, "_please_ get this thing off me? I can't hold it much longer…"

McGonagall waved her wand, repairing the desk and getting rid of the needle. As Tōshirō sheathed his Zanpakutō and returned to his seat, Hyōrinmaru slithering out of his sleeve and draping around his neck, McGonagall gave him a critical look, "You seem to have issues controlling your own power, Mr Potter."

Whispers swept the classroom at the name _Potter_, and Tōshirō gave a dark chuckle, "I assume Dumbledore has you convinced that I'm the "Boy-Who-Lived" too then?"

McGonagall frowned, "It's _Professor _Dumbledore, and he did say something along those lines, yes."

Tōshirō raised his eyes and looked the woman right in the face, "Well he's wrong. I'm not the "Boy-Who-Lived", I'm just Tōshirō Hitsugaya, a Japanese exchange student. I have nothing to do with whatever dark lord I'm supposed to have killed as a baby according to Dumbledore; I'm just here to learn."

McGonagall nodded slightly, but her thoughts were racing, _"Those are unmistakeably Lily's eyes, and he looks so much like James except for the silver hair. I know he's lying about who he is… but why?"_

She was shaken from her thought by Tōshirō as he said, "Now, can I have another match? I'd like to try that again without almost crushing myself."

-RoI-

"Are you really Harry Potter? Why didn't you say? Why don't you want to be Harry Potter?" said Padma once they had left the class and were heading towards Charms.

Tōshirō did not reply, so the girl kept pushing until finally he turned and stared her down, "Padma, I'm not the "Boy-Who-Lived". Dumbledore's got this wacky idea in his noggin that I'm Harry Potter, when I'm not. Ever since he came into my life, Dumbledore's been trying to exercise control over me for some purpose of his. I don't want that; I just want to learn magic and live my life peacefully. If you can't accept that just because some old man seems to be turning senile, then I guess our friendship's over."

Padma opened her mouth to respond, but at that moment Tōshirō's pocket beeped. He pulled out his phone, checked the screen and said, "See you all in Charms. Later!" before dashing off.

Padma stared after him for a moment before she murmured, "I didn't mean it like that… I need to apologize to him later."

Hermione nodded, "It is odd that the headmaster would make such an assumption about him though… if he's telling the truth."

Lisa Turpin chose this moment to speak up from behind them, where she had overheard their entire conversation, "What reason would he have to lie about it?"

Lily Moon, walking beside her, frowned, "Maybe the memories are too painful? I mean we know that the night You-Know-Who fell he killed the Potters before attacking their son."

Lisa shook her head, "Harry Potter couldn't have been more than a year old at that point, maybe less. How would he remember anything?"

Lily shrugged, "I don't know. It was just a guess."

Padma frowned, "Maybe we should ask anyway?"

Hermione shook her head, "You heard what he said back there; there's no point in pressing the issue because it'll just annoy him. Come on, let's go."

-RoI-

Tōshirō was feeling a little fidgety during Charms with the Slytherins. He hadn't been able to burn off the irritation that Dumbledore was spreading the rumour of his being Harry Potter around quite as much as he'd have liked in fighting the Hollow; the creature didn't even last twenty seconds before its mask was perfectly bisected and it faded away.

Thus when Professor Flitwick started them off on basic Hover Charms using feathers, he was too distracted to try limiting the amount of power he put into it and his feather slapped against the ceiling.

Flitwick's tiny eyebrows went up, "Impressive power for one so young, Mr P…"

Tōshirō held up his hand, "I already had this discussion with Professor McGonagall. The headmaster is mistaken; I have nothing to do with the person he seems to believe that I am."

Flitwick covered, "…Mr Hitsugaya."

Tōshirō smiled, "Thank you."

Flitwick smiled, "Anyway, you have impressive magical power for your age Mr Hitsugaya."

Tōshirō frowned, "I do? Back in Japan I think I'd be about a little above average in magical power."

"**That's what you think," **Hyōrinmaru muttered slyly into his ear.

"Hush, Haku-chan," Tōshirō muttered back to the dragon, knowing full well that despite the gravelly masculine voice it was Haku talking through the dragon.

Flitwick frowned as Tōshirō addressed the dragon, before he said, "Maybe Japan has a larger average for magical power than Britain does then."

Malfoy, sitting on the other side of the classroom, snorted, "How unlikely that a foreign mongrel is more powerful than a Pureblood like me."

Flitwick rounded on him, "I am half-Goblin and one of the foremost masters of Charms in the British magical community, as well as the duelling champion of my generation. Does the fact that I am only part-human mean that I am less powerful than other people simply because of that? No, I worked hard to get where I am today, and it had _nothing_ to do with my blood. I will be taking fifteen points from Slytherin for your intolerance of your classmates and if it happens again I will not only report you to Professor Snape but I will also put you into detention. Is that clear, Mr Malfoy?"

Malfoy looked mulish, but he nodded and slunk down in his chair. Flitwick turned to Tōshirō and continued, "Regardless of the Headmaster's opinions on who you may or may not be, Mr Hitsugaya, I am expecting great things from you in later years."

Tōshirō nodded, "Thank you, Flitwick-sensei."

-RoI-

"YAHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Tōshirō activated his Shunpō and flashed past the Hollow, cutting it in half down the centre and causing it to disappear. Sheathing his Zanpakutō with a quiet sigh, Tōshirō turned around to face Dumbledore, "What?"

Dumbledore gave him a grandfatherly smile that Tōshirō did not fall for one bit, "Why Harry, I was simply curious as to how well you could handle the Hollow since you didn't know how powerful it was."

Tōshirō's eyebrow quirked up a little, "I knew how powerful it was thanks, my Denreishinki still works."

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled and Hyōrinmaru, draped around Tōshirō's neck, hissed slightly, but Tōshirō paid the dragon no mind as he stared at Dumbledore, "That may be so, but equipment can malfunction can it not? After all I know all about your little encounter with that Adjuchas-class Hollow on the train here."

Tōshirō's eyebrow cranked up a few notches, but before he could say anything Dumbledore said, "I have wards around the train which tell me if it's being attacked."

The silver-haired boy nodded, then checked his watch, "If you don't mind, I'd like to get some time with my friends before my Potions class." Without waiting for an answer, he dashed off.

-RoI-

When he joined his friends in the courtyard for break, he found that Aaron was currently telling the others about the Potions teacher, who was seemingly a bit of a foul git.

"Seriously, the guy is foul to the Gryffindors. He favours the Slytherins through the entire lesson and takes points from the Gryffindors for the smallest of infractions."

Hermione frowned, "Well I hope he isn't like that with us…"

Tōshirō grinned, "Hopefully not…"

Hermione, who had had her back to him, jumped and whirled around, "Tōshirō!"

Tōshirō gave her a wry grin, "Jumpy much, Hermione?"

Hermione punched him and Aaron sweat-dropped, "She's been taking lessons from Maia, I see…"

Maia raised her fist and gave her friend a sweet smile, "Got something to say, Aaron?"

Aaron gulped, "No… I'm sorry."

The two girls smiled at each other as their corresponding males both exchanged sympathetic glances.

-RoI-

As they progressed down to the dungeons for Potions (Aaron running off for Herbology with a hurried goodbye), Tōshirō took a moment to get his bearings.

They sat down in the class around a large table and got out all their things. Five minutes after they entered the door flew back and a man who resembled the batlike Ajuchas Tōshirō had fought on the way into Hogwarts entered.

"There will be no foolish wand-waving or silly incantations in this class. As such I do not expect many of you to understand the exact art and subtle science that is Potion-making."

He looked around the glass, eyeing them with a baleful stare, "However, for those select few who possess the predisposition, I can teach you how to bewitch the mind and ensnare the senses. I can tell you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even put a stopper in death."

Tōshirō exchanged a look with Hermione, his eyebrows raised.

"Potter!"

Tōshirō reacted in a specific way; namely not at all. He completely ignored the teacher and returned to scanning his book.

"Potter!"

Again, Tōshirō made absolutely no sign that he realized the teacher was talking to him.

"POTTER!"

Tōshirō raised his head and looked at him, "Oh, were you talking to me? Because I think you should probably know that my name isn't Potter. It's Hitsugaya, Tōshirō Hitsugaya."

A vein visibly pulsed in the professor's forehead before he said, "Very well then, _Mr Hitsugaya_, tell me what I would get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

Tōshirō drummed his fingers on the desk for about half a second before he said, "Powdered root of asphodel and infusion of wormwood create a sleeping draught powerful enough to merit the name "The Draught of Living Death"."

The man's eyes narrowed before he said, "Where would I find a bezoar, if I were looking for one?"

Tōshirō tapped a finger on his chin thoughtfully before he grinned, "A stomach; specifically the stomach of a goat. Bezoars are also famous for being able to cure all but the most elaborate poisons."

His lip curled and he hissed, "Finally, what is the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?"

Tōshirō's grin widened and he swung back on his chair, "The difference is… nothing. They're the same plant. Another name of them would be aconite."

Snape twitched irritably before he growled, "All correct. Five points to Ravenclaw; now stop swinging back on that chair before I decide to deduct those points again for it."

Tōshirō obediently swung back to the normal position and smiled as the man whirled around and flicked his wand at the board. Words appeared as he said, "All of you will make this potion to cure boils. It should be simple enough for you to manage…"

It sure was. By the time Snape came around to inspect their potions, Tōshirō had helped Hermione, Maia and the majority of the class with their potions. The only person he hadn't helped was one Zacharias Smith, who had made a comment about him obviously being better at Potions than "some Japanese boy who was probably compensating for something with the sword he carried everywhere". It had taken some fast talking on the part of Zacharias's dorm-mates, Justin Finch-Fletchley and Ernie Macmillan, to stop Tōshirō from doing something _very_ horrible to him.

Snape grudgingly awarded a few more points to Tōshirō when he thoughtfully demonstrated his potion only to reveal that it was perfect.

As they were leaving the classroom after the lesson and heading for Herbology with the Slytherins, Hermione was in shock, "Tōshirō… I don't know how you did that."

"Did what?" said the boy quietly, looking up from Maia's _Lord of the Rings _volume.

Hermione jabbed a finger back at the classroom, "_That_! Back there you did your potion perfectly, then proceeded to help most of the class to make theirs perfect! You're practically a born teacher!"

Tōshirō laughed, "Hermione, I'm not a teacher. I'm a fighter. The minimum anybody would get out of me would be fighting hand-to-hand either with your body or a sword, and practicing Kidō. That's about the extent of what I could teach a student."

Hermione smiled, "Then why not teach your friends?"

Tōshirō returned to his book, "Hmm, maybe."

Hermione looked hopeful, "So you'll do it?"

Tōshirō shrugged, "I said maybe, not yes. I will have to get permission from my old school in Japan first. Come on, let's get to Herbology."

-RoI-

Their first Herbology class was a lot of fun, though Tōshirō did have a slight run in with a few tendrils of Venomous Tentacula which seemed to think he looked appetizing and grabbed him from behind. This, as you might expect, did not end well for the Tentacula.

By the end of the resultant "battle", the Tentacula was pinned back against the window frames of the greenhouse by a series of well-placed ice senbon and Tōshirō was back to working on the small plant he had been cultivating for the lesson as though nothing had happened, though almost the entire class was gaping at him and Professor Sprout was watching him with a great deal of curiosity in her gaze.

Lunch for the gang was a quiet affair, spent at the Hufflepuff table. Aaron was shocked when he found out that Snape hadn't been quite as mean to the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs as he'd been expecting.

"Well," said Hermione, "Nobody expected the Spanish Inquisition, so don't feel too bad."

Those Muggleborns and Halfbloods that heard her and had been exposed to the source of the joke all laughed, Aaron and Maia included. Tōshirō spared them a glance before returning to his book.

"So how far are you in now, Tōshirō?" Maia asked him.

"They're just arriving at Beorn's house," replied the silver-haired Shinigami without looking up.

-RoI-

Akon frowned as he typed rapidly at his computer screen and finally yelled, "Rin! How are you doing with that analysis?"

The brown-haired Shinigami jumped and said, "I-I'm almost done! Just printing my results now!"

Akon nodded, "Just send them to my computer, I'll call Tōshirō!"

As the files came up on his monitor, Akon picked up the phone and tapped a few buttons.

-RoI-

Tōshirō's pocket rang.

Ignoring the startled looks from nearby Hufflepuffs who had never witnessed him using his Denreishinki before, Tōshirō tugged the instrument out and flipped it open before speaking in Japanese, "Hello?"

"_Hey, it's Akon here. We tracked the signature that was tampering with your Denreishinki."_

Tōshirō visibly perked up and put down the book, "You did? Did you get a name as well?"

Akon's reply was somewhat disappointed, _"Unfortunately there wasn't enough left to get a full lock on the signature before the residue dissipated. I'm afraid we can't find out who is tampering with your equipment."_

Tōshirō muttered something in Japanese that everybody in the vicinity (even those who had never heard him speaking Japanese) could tell was probably something rather vulgar, "Rats, I was hoping for good news."

"_Yeah well, sorry."_

Tōshirō hung up and slid his phone back into his pocket, picking up his book again.

"What was that about?" asked Maia.

Tōshirō shrugged, "Crank call. There's a disadvantage to having a mobile phone, I've discovered."

One girl further along the table leaned over, "Aren't those illegal?"

Tōshirō stared at her for a second before he said, "In the day I've been here, I've yet to see anything even remotely resembling an electric appliance. We've pretty much blended seamlessly into the Muggle culture and adopted their home comforts for ourselves, so why has Britain remained behind?"

"Simple, foreigner," said Malfoy from behind Tōshirō, "Because we as wizards should not disgrace ourselves by stooping to using _Muggle_ trash. Everybody knows the Muggleborns shouldn't even be allowed into the school… OOF!"

Tōshirō didn't even turn his head, he simply slammed his elbow backwards into Malfoy's gut, "Get out of here you pest. Nobody likes you."

Malfoy scowled, "My father…"

Tōshirō interrupted, "…can't stop me. I can tell that your family is one of those that use bribes to weasel out of trouble or pervert the course of justice. As such I'm going to give you fair warning; stay away from me and my friends or there _will_ be punishment."

-RoI-

History of Magic was a thoroughly boring affair. Even Hermione had to admit that, though Tōshirō was more inclined to play poker with Aaron through the entire period. When Hermione called him on it he stated, "You know, as tempted as I am to just walk up there, exorcize him and be done with it, I would probably get in trouble for it so I'm just going to say this: I could probably learn more on this subject from the textbook than the teacher."

By the end of it, Aaron had lost a considerable quantity of money and Tōshirō was having to resist the urge to laugh. According to Tōshirō's dorm-mates and Aaron's (four boys called Seamus Finnegan, Dean Thomas, Neville Longbottom and Ron Weasley), the silver-haired Shinigami had an incredible poker face as well as, in the words of Ron, "a very annoying habit of showing the wrong expression so as to give other players the wrong idea".

All in all, Tōshirō had walked out of the class having fleeced all eight boys out of their money and grinning broadly.

-RoI-

That evening, Tōshirō was sitting with Hermione and Padma and reading _The Hobbit _when a group of sixth and seventh-years approached him, one of them holding a large quantity of small discs making a soft growling noise.

"Hi," said one, "We saw that wandless magic you did last night and were wondering if you'd be happy to demonstrate any more for us on these Fanged Frisbees."

Tōshirō thought it over for a few seconds before he grinned and nodded, "Got it."

He moved into the middle of the room while the students spread out to surround him in a loose circle. Taking a single glance around the room to make sure nobody was closer to him than the sixth and seventh-years, Tōshirō closed his eyes and concentrated. He could sense the faint auras given off by the enchanted Frisbees against the stronger (yet still inconsequential in comparison to his own) auras from the students.

The first student threw his Frisbee. Tōshirō whipped around and flung out one hand, "Hadō no Yon: Byakurai!"

The Frisbee hit the floor with a smoking hole directly through the centre.

Two of the students flung their Frisbees, prompting Tōshirō to snap both arms in opposite directions, sending both Frisbees crashing into the floor with identical holes through them.

The contest got steadily more heated, more and more Frisbees being thrown before finally, about ten were thrown at once. Tōshirō tracked them, waiting for the opportune moment until…

"Hadō no Sanjūsan: Sokatsui!"

The blue fireball sprang from Tōshirō's hands and hit home on the Frisbee closest to him, the blast immediately spreading out and taking out the other Frisbees.

Tōshirō took a bow as the awed crowd applauded, before returning to his chair as one of the seventh-years got rid of the broken Frisbees and turned to look at him, "So, what else did you learn in Japan?"

Tōshirō picked up his book and resumed reading, "How to keep myself in shape. Can't be fighting anything if I can't move fast enough to not get hit while changing position."

A girl who looked to be in her second year and Tōshirō vaguely noted was Asian spoke up, "But why? If you've got magic can't you just make a shield?"

Tōshirō closed his book with a snap, "See, that's the problem I'm seeing in magical Britain right now that no other country has as far as I can tell. When you find a solution to some problem or other, you stop looking for any other solutions. I reckon this is why you still use flaming torches, quills and parchment, etc; because it never occurred to anybody that there are better solutions out there."

There was a pause before Penelope spoke, "I've never thought of it like that before."

Tōshirō nodded before standing up and turning to look at the assorted students, "Not including those with at least one non-magical parent or relative, who out of all of you has ever watched a television or used a computer?"

There was dead silence. Tōshirō shrugged, "Exactly my point. From what I've seen of the magical world outside Britain, nobody's ever thought that there _might_ be alternatives to working with magic. Can anybody name an example?"

A girl who appeared in her fifth year raised her hand, "The Muggles have guns. They're like a non-magical Killing Curse."

Tōshirō smiled, "Good answer. Anyone else?"

Another boy held up his hand, "Muggles have medicines. They're like potions, but can't cure as much as we can."

Tōshirō grinned happily, "Excellent. It's like the old Zen saying, there's Yin and there's Yang." At the mystified expressions he sighed, picked up a piece of parchment and quickly sketched a Yin-Yang symbol on it. Holding it up, he said, "This symbol is supposed to represent the two halves of all things. In the Muggle religion Buddhism, this features prominently as being representative of balance. Now, think of it like this. Muggles have medicines, but from what he just said," he pointed to the boy who had spoken last, "They can't cure some of what magical potions can. For example getting rid of those destroyed Frisbees. Muggles can't destroy matter or teleport it or whatever he did to remove them, but wizards can."

He tapped the black half of the symbol, "Imagine this is the magic half of the world. We can do some stuff, but not others," he indicated the wavy line down the middle, "And some of what we can do directly affects the Muggle side of things." He tapped the black dot on the white side of the line, "But in contrast, Muggles have stuff that we can't do but they can, and stuff that they can't do but we can. They also have stuff that directly influences what _we_ can do. Therefore it's perfectly balanced. Now if someone were able to combine the magical and the Muggle… create things that could be equally used by both sides…"

He crumpled up the piece of paper and tossed it into the fire. "Apparently, electricity and magic don't mix. That's why we don't have any appliances in Hogwarts that you might find in a normal Muggle home. But has it occurred to _anybody _here in Britain that maybe you could use magic or similar, maybe even Runic Arrays or Arithmancy, to work out how to provide an appliance's power from magic or shield the electrical workings of an appliance from magic?"

Penelope spoke up, "How do you know about Runic Arrays and Arithmancy? That kind of stuff is OWL to NEWT-level!"

Tōshirō gave her an utterly deadpan look, "Seriously? Didn't it occur to anybody other than me and Hermione to buy extra reading materials besides those written on your booklists?"

There was dead silence and Tōshirō sighed, "I see. This is supposed to be the house of knowledge isn't it?"

A few older Ravenclaws nodded; looks of understanding finally dawning on their faces. Tōshirō flung his arms wide, "There's a Muggle philosophy said by a man named Mahatma Gandhi, "We must be the change we want to see." Why not start here? As I said, we're the house of knowledge! We have most of the finest minds in the school here, and I'm sure the rest are on the staff or in some of the less bigoted members of Slytherin, though I'm not so sure about that last one from my experience of that lot…"

There was scattered laughter.

"Anyway," said Tōshirō, "What say we try to change Britain for the better from school?"

There was a cheer from the students, before one of them said, "You mentioned earlier that you tried to keep fit. What do you generally do?"

Tōshirō laughed, "You wanna get fit? Then get your ass out of bed at six tomorrow morning and join me for a jog around the grounds! Be warned though; this is a one-off choice. If you decide to take this up, I will drive you into the ground to make you fit. So, are you in?"

There was a pause before hands started rising. Tōshirō took a moment to count them before he suddenly stopped, "Hang on, how the hell did I suddenly become the spokesperson for Ravenclaw house?"

Hermione burst out laughing, "I said earlier you were a born teacher. Believe me now?"

Tōshirō smirked at her, "Alright, you win." He stood up and stretched before glancing around the room, "Guys, I recommend you all go to bed so that you can get a good night's sleep, because starting tomorrow I am going to run you to exhaustion every morning until you guys can spend most of the weekend jogging around the lake and not run out of breath!"

He turned and walked up to bed.

-RoI-

The next morning, each and every student who had chosen to turn out for the morning exercise could be found waiting sleepily in the common room when Tōshirō made his appearance, his silver hair tousled and messy but otherwise looking alert and rested.

He grinned when he saw them, before he performed a quick headcount and said, "Right, I'll be back in a second," and headed back up the boys' stairs.

There was a brief pause, before there were three almost feminine shrieks and Terry Boot, Michael Corner and Anthony Goldstein tumbled down the stairs in their pyjamas, with Tōshirō walking behind them with his sword in his right hand and his wand in his left.

"Let this be a lesson," said Tōshirō, "When I said that was a one-off option last night, I meant it. Anybody who sleeps in when they volunteered for training will get ice cubes in their bed, am I clear?"

There were lots of scared nods from around the room, and Tōshirō beamed, "Good! Behave and you'll find me to be very reasonable. Go against me…" the air cooled noticeably and several people shivered as the kind of grin you'd expect to see on a psychotic axe murderer appeared on Tōshirō's face, "…the results will not be pleasant for you. Got it?"

Again, there were lots of scared nods from around the room, and Tōshirō grinned as his wand returned to its holster and his sword to its sheath, "Then let us go!"

-RoI-

The Ravenclaws almost crawled into the Great Hall at the start of breakfast. Practically the only ones not almost dying from exhaustion were Tōshirō and a couple of the more athletically-minded Muggleborns in later years.

"I don't get you," gasped Penelope as she almost slumped forwards onto the table, having to use Roger Davis to hold herself up (though he was in a similar state), "I don't get how you can do all this in one morning and not even be out of breath!"

Tōshirō laughed, "Penelope, I was going easy on every one of you today. What I do back in Japan is about four times harder than this. Believe me, I _would _be out of breath if I did that."

"F… Four times harder?" panted Padma as she shakily poured herself a glass of orange juice, "How… how is that even possible?"

Tōshirō smiled benignly as he shovelled bacon and eggs onto his plate, "The way I see it, the wandless magic we use in Japan is much more potent than the magic you use here and therefore needs a whole lot more power to use effectively. Becoming physically fit contributes to that, which is why I can pull off that wandless magic and you cannot… yet."

"Yet?" said Hermione between gulping for breath, "Does that mean you will teach us wandless magic?"

Tōshirō grinned, "Maybe."

"Mr Hitsugaya?" squeaked Professor Flitwick's voice from behind him, "Would you kindly explain why most of my house appear to be dying in their seats and you look absolutely fine?"

Tōshirō laughed, "They'll be fine in a couple of hours, hopefully. I just persuaded most of them to join me on my morning exercises in the grounds, and I ended up doing only a quarter of what I usually do because most of them seemed ready to drop by that point. After that I got them to go shower and change and then come down for breakfast."

Flitwick beamed, "A very wise choice, Mr Hitsugaya! Being physically fit greatly contributes to your abilities in a fight, as well as your magical reserves!"

Hermione nodded, "That's basically what Tōshirō said last night…"

Tōshirō poured himself some coffee from the pot in front of him, "We also made a few plans for later on. I can tell you them during Charms later if you wish, since everybody seems to have elected me as Ravenclaw's representative."

There was a tired murmur of assent from along the table. Tōshirō grinned, "Sissies. But I'll have them up to speed by the end of the year, and that's a promise!"

-RoI-

Dumbledore was sucking on a lemon drop while he pondered the enigma of Tōshirō Hitsugaya. It had only been a day and the boy seemed to have almost all of Ravenclaw House rallying to his banner. Admittedly while he couldn't deny the excellent opportunity to get in on a great source of influence over the Wizengamot, it did present the issue that with Ravenclaw House following revolutionary ideas such as those presented by the Potter-in-disguise, there was a great threat that they might start delving into knowledge he had worked very hard to keep from being generally known.

Sighing, he stood and left the office. He had to find a way to cut off Tōshirō's plans before they could get any further.

-RoI-

"You really thought this out, didn't you?" said Flitwick, once Tōshirō and his friends had finished relating what had gone on the previous night to the Charms professor.

Tōshirō shrugged, "It isn't just that I want magical Britain to either enter the twentieth century willingly or be dragged into it kicking and screaming; I also want to rub it in all those self-righteous Pureblood jerks' faces."

Flitwick chuckled, "Just like your mother, Tōshirō."

The silver-haired boy went rigid. Flitwick chuckled again, "You have Lily Evans' eyes Tōshirō; no matter how much you might wish to deny that you had a family here in Britain and no matter how you might have changed, you still have certain marks which make you instantly recognizable to anybody who knew them."

Tōshirō sighed, "I can't really escape from it, can I?"

When Flitwick shook his head Tōshirō sighed again, "Fine. Can we keep this between us, though?"

Hermione smiled and patted his shoulder as she spoke for the first time since helping him explain the last night's activities, "I'll never turn on you, Tōshirō."

Padma grinned, "Neither will I."

Flitwick smiled, "You're very like your father now. He was a ladies' man of the highest degree while he was here."

Tōshirō's eyebrow shot straight up as the two girls started laughing and Flitwick continued, "Then again, Potter men _always_ gravitated towards smart women. I remember your mother was a genius among Muggleborns, and so gifted when it came to Charms… I contemplated taking her on as my apprentice at one point."

Tōshirō swallowed, "Do… do you have any pictures?"

Flitwick smiled, "Here." He reached into his desk drawer and pulled out a thick book. Flipping through it a few pages he said, "Here."

Turning the book around, he pointed at one particular picture.

Tōshirō and the girls leaned forwards to see a beautiful young woman with red hair and emerald green eyes smiling at the camera. "She's beautiful," remarked Padma.

Flitwick nodded, "Here is your father, Tōshirō."

His hand drifted towards the end of the page and tapped the picture of a man with wild black hair and hazel eyes.

Hermione squinted at the picture, "He's a handsome one."

Flitwick nodded, "The ladies loved James Potter, particularly since he was the Seeker for the Gryffindor team. He only had eyes for Lily, however."

Tōshirō opened his mouth to reply but at that moment his pocket beeped, "I gotta go. See you later."

He ran out of the room as Hermione and Padma glanced at each other and followed.

-RoI-

"So, what do you need us to do?" said Aaron and Maia that evening at dinner.

Tōshirō smiled, "I want you to gather the smartest people in your houses and persuade them to help us. I do have most of the Ravenclaw house following me but I need voices in the other houses."

Maia nodded, "There're two girls in our year; you've met them already. Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott?"

Tōshirō nodded, remembering the two girls in question. "What about them?"

Maia frowned, "According to Susan, her aunt is head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement."

Padma gasped, "The DMLE? That could give us a lot stronger backing if we can get her in on this!"

Tōshirō nodded and made a note to talk to Susan and Hannah during the next class he shared with the Hufflepuffs, "What about you, Aaron? Anybody you can think of?"

Aaron shrugged, "Only two I can think of; the rest of my house are more brawn than brains. They're twins in third year and from what I've heard they're the most formidable pranking team in the school. One of their brothers is in my dorm, he always talks about how they used to pick on him when he was a kid. If we can get them on our side…"

Tōshirō nodded, "See if you can set up a meeting with them. These two could be very helpful if I'm reading them right from your description."

Aaron nodded and Hermione piped up, "What should me and Padma do?"

Tōshirō turned to them, "Padma, would your sister perhaps be interested in this?"

Padma shrugged, "My sister and her friend are more interested in gossip, guys and clothes more than anything else."

Tōshirō latched onto one particular word, "Gossip? Could we get these two in on the Hogwarts rumour mill I just know exists? Having a set of eyes on the inside could be invaluable for getting all the really good information."

Padma laughed, "If I know Parvati right, she'll be _running _the rumour mill with her friend. I'll talk to her and see if she's interested."

Tōshirō nodded, "You do that. Hermione?"

The brunette looked up, "Yes?"

The silver-haired Shinigami grinned, "Since I pretty much run this deal now, I need a deputy. You interested?"

Hermione became visibly perkier, "Of course I'm in. First order of business?"

He grinned, "Try and work out who can do what. If you can, separate out everybody in Ravenclaw house according to what they can and want to do. Research, developing new spells and charms and whatnot… that'll be for older students in Runes and Arithmancy since those two subjects deal directly with that… get those with a more political view working on finding out about and streamlining the current government. Also, find a set of the more gossip-oriented Ravenclaws… that Chinese girl in second year and her friends should do the trick… and see what they think about establishing some form of school newsletter. Once Padma gets a response from Parvati, see if she and her friend would be willing to head up that newsletter. If we can't get the newsletter, try for something like a telephone tree; that should give us a strong foot in the door on the gossip here."

Hermione nodded, having been writing all this down on a notepad as he spoke. Finally she flipped it shut and said, "What are you going to do?"

Tōshirō smirked, "Me? I'm going down to the lake. I haven't practiced any of my Kidō since I got here and I need to get back to that or I'll lose my edge. Catch you later."

He walked from the room, the door closing quietly behind him.

Hermione allowed herself a happy smile as she got to work on Tōshirō's orders.

For better or worse, the British Wizarding community was about to start experiencing changes it should've gone through years ago… and they were going to be performed with a gang of first-years at the helm.

A smile drew itself across Hermione's lips as a quote from _The Lord of the Rings_ came back to her, _"even the smallest person can change the course of the future"_.

"Times are changing," she murmured, "Let's see how well we weather the storm to come."

**(A/N: Hooray! I finally got this out! If you've been following my other stories, I'm currently still doing the rewrite to chapter 3 of The Rinnegan Maelstrom and am currently at 7,831 words! Also, for the writers among you, have you ever had it where you've suddenly started having new story ideas throw themselves at you while you've been trying to get through the ones you have running? Between now and when I last posted, I must've had five new storylines drop into my lap! I'm still going to forge on though!**

**Anyway, after today updates may drop off a bit (I mean, more than they already have) since I restart college (high school to Americans) tomorrow. I'll endeavour to keep writing in my spare time but considering I flunked my first year I need to try harder this time around!**

**Lastly, if you didn't get the Spanish Inquisition joke Tōshirō made, type "Monty Python Spanish Inquisition into Google and look for the video by jumperbean2. Even then you might not get it if you aren't British.**

**I wasn't sure about the latter half of this chapter, I thought it was too much too soon. Depending on your opinions drop me a review saying what you think. If you try to flame, I will use them to toast crumpets and boil water for tea. Until then folks, this is Leonineus saying GOODNIGHT!)**


	6. Taking Care of Business

Reign of Ice

Chapter Six: Taking Care of Business

**Two weeks later.**

"So," said Augusta Longbottom, looking towards the Hogwarts teaching staff at the other end of the table, "Are the new students settling in well?"

Dumbledore did not respond, so McGonagall took over; "We have had no incidents involving the first-years so far, but there are some who stand out above the others."

Augusta looked curious, "Like who?"

McGonagall smiled, "Since the two biggest examples are in Ravenclaw House, I will defer to my colleague in charge of that house. Filius?"

Flitwick sat up on the pile of cushions that allowed him to see over the table edge, "Two of my first years, Tōshirō Hitsugaya and Hermione Granger, are already stirring up the school after two weeks. They're top of their class in absolutely everything."

Sprout and McGonagall nodded their assent, McGonagall choosing to deliver her own opinion, "Tōshirō in particular; he has everything. He's extremely powerful for his age and has the talent and the intelligence to use that power to its maximum potential."

Flitwick nodded, "On his first day in my class, he performed a Hover Charm and not only managed it on his first try, but accidentally overpowered the spell so much that the feather hit the ceiling. Immediately afterwards he started asking about learning methods to better control how much magic he put into his spells. Normally it's only fully-grown wizards who practice limiting how much magic they want to use."

As Filius stopped talking, Sprout took up the conversation, "Tōshirō is a very talented pupil and, while unrelated to the topic at hand, he is also very calm under pressure. He was attacked by a strand of Venomous Tentacula while working, and instead of screaming and panicking as most students are prone to do, he instead pulled himself free and pinned the strand to the wall of the greenhouse with some kind of ice needles he created out of nowhere."

There was a startled murmur amount the governors; being able to use magic to create things such as ice was rare, even among the most powerful sorcerers in history. To have an eleven-year-old boy capable of it was unheard of.

"Severus," said Lucius Malfoy from the other side of the table, "What say you about this Hitsugaya boy?"

Snape considered the ceiling for a minute before replying, "Tōshirō Hitsugaya is a rare breed of student. I gave him the instructions for the boil-removing potion we were studying and he not only created a perfect potion, but then proceeded to help the entire class with their potions as well, all except one Zacharias Smith who, I must admit, rather brought the lack of aid upon himself. By the end of the class, all but Mr Smith had almost perfect potions with the exception of the aforementioned Miss Granger, who had a potion of the same quality as Mr Hitsugaya's."

Lucius nodded, displeased that his old friend seemed to be in a praiseworthy mood (as unlikely as that seemed). Snape continued, "I also quizzed the class on some questions at the start, including a number of questions that would normally only asked of higher years. I use this method to isolate potential prodigies or particularly skilled or well-read students in the class. Mr Hitsugaya got all the questions right, even the one question I threw at him that normally only OWL-level students would know the answer to. I rarely say this because of the poor quality of students I usually have in my class, but Mr Hitsugaya is perhaps a prodigy in the Potions field."

"Comparable with yourself, Severus?" asked the oldest member of the board of governors and patriarch of the Greengrass clan, Zachariah Greengrass.

Snape nodded, "With the proper assistance, Tōshirō Hitsugaya may end up the greatest Potions master in Britain, even better than myself."

There was a startled murmur from everybody in the room. Considering Snape's track record with students since he had been appointed to the post of Potions teacher, that was high praise.

"Anything else you can tell us about this boy?" asked Abraham Davis curiously. The more he knew about the boy the more likely it was he could possibly get a marriage contract between him and his granddaughter Tracy.

Flitwick smiled, "I would ask your grandson Roger, the next time you see him. As he's in my house he probably knows more about Tōshirō's movements than I do; having been present when Tōshirō stirred up my house."

Davis nodded as Lucius said, "Yet he is still from another country? Maybe I should meet with him to broker a treaty of some kind?"

McGonagall snorted, "That would be unlikely to succeed at best. Tōshirō Hitsugaya has already shown that he is not one to suffer fools, bigots or those who think themselves better than him. He may be a first-year, but I assure you that those who annoy him only do so once."

Lucius scowled, but nodded.

"Anyway," said Dumbledore, speaking for the first time, "Shall we discuss anything else, or wax eloquent about our latest prodigy's skills all day?"

The governors nodded, before moving onto other matters.

-RoI-

Hermione and Padma were leaning over Tōshirō, who was sleeping in a chair by the fire, "Should we wake him?"

The silver-haired boy tossed and turned in the chair, his eyes shifting restlessly beneath their lids as Hermione nodded, "I guess so. He doesn't look like he's having a good dream…"

Tōshirō suddenly shot upright with a gasp, looking around wildly before calming down again, "Hey Hermione."

"Are you alright, Tōshirō?"

Tōshirō grinned, scratching his head, "Oh, I'm fine. Just a bad dream."

Hermione frowned, "Are you sure you're okay?"

Tōshirō laughed, "It was just a dream, Hermione. No real importance there."

The brunette scrutinized him for a moment but finally shook her head. "So," said Tōshirō, standing up and stretching, "What are we doing now?"

Hermione produced a notebook from her robes and leafed through it, "Let's see… we met with Fred and George Weasley, Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott the week before last…"

Tōshirō snickered as he rolled his shoulders to work some feeling back into the stiff muscles there. Those particular meetings had been _most _enlightening.

_Flashback Start!_

"_So," said one of the identical redheads sitting across from Tōshirō in an empty classroom Flitwick had allowed them to use, "What did you get us over here for, _Mister _Hitsugaya?"_

_Tōshirō chuckled as he idly caressed the top of Hyōrinmaru's head where the ice dragon was curled up in front of him, "I believe that you two may have qualities that I'm looking for. You seem more intelligent than most of your house aside from Aaron; an almost Slytherin-esque cunning, if you will."_

_One of the redheads looked at his brother, "I think he just insulted us, Fred."_

_Fred nodded, "I concur, brother."_

_Tōshirō smirked, "In fact, you two could be said to be even more Slytherin than most Slytherins I've seen so far. After all, Gryffindors are supposed to be direct and unsubtle. Who'd expect cunning from them, when you have another house _famed_ for their cunning?"_

_George grinned, "I see you hit the nail on the head, Mr Hitsugaya."_

"_Please," said Tōshirō, "Call me Tōshirō." He sat upright in his chair, "The fact is, I'm somewhat disappointed. Elsewhere in the world, the magical community has more or less caught up with the Muggles. Here, however…"_

_Fred nodded, "Right. So… what does this have to do with us?"_

"_My aim is to bring this country into the current century, whether it wants to go or not. As such I need people like you to help, because as unique as I am, I cannot accomplish this alone."_

"_What can we do to help?" asked George._

"_I need you two to act as my representatives in your house. Aaron is only a first year; I need older students to back me as well so that I can win over the houses."_

"_Then why not appeal to our older brother Percy? Granted he's a prat but he is a prefect which means he has more sway."_

"_That may be so, but I met him last week and he's a little too rule-oriented. I'll still appeal to him but I doubt he'll get on board because with what I'm planning I may end up breaking a few laws by the time I'm done." He stood up, "So, are you two in?"_

_The twins huddled for a second before nodding, "We're in."_

_Flashback End!_

Tōshirō chuckled, "Yeah, those two were _very_ interesting."

"Hmm," Hermione muttered as she made a note on her pad, "So the interview with the Weasley twins went well… what about the other one with Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott?"

Tōshirō frowned, "They were both fine with the idea, though Susan said she was going to hold off on committing herself until she could get some advice from her aunt. Considering her aunt is the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, getting her on our side would give us quite the advantage."

Hermione nodded and made another note, "Okay. Have we checked how the gossip group is doing?"

Tōshirō shook his head and stood up, "Not that I recall. Give me a few minutes."

-RoI-

Cho Chang and her friends were poring over a thick ledger when Tōshirō approached, "Hello ladies, any news?"

Cho brushed a strand of her long black hair out of her eyes before shaking her head, "The gossip mill hasn't yielded very much so far; mostly of the "Student A snogged Student B in Broom Closet C" variety. We try to verify everything we can and if we find something important that we can easily verify, we enter it into this ledger;" she gave the volume in question a significant look, "It's usually bragging or vicious gossip though; nothing really ground-shaking yet."

Tōshirō shrugged, "Don't get discouraged. You'll probably find something eventually."

The girls nodded and resumed talking as Tōshirō walked back to Hermione and Padma. Hermione consulted her notepad as he sat down, "How did it go?"

"Little of any use so far, but it's still early days so I encouraged them to keep looking."

Hermione nodded, "It looks like we've dealt with the outstanding tasks for the moment. Unless you think we've missed anything?"

Tōshirō was about to reply when the entrance to the common room opened and Aaron entered, accompanied by a lanky redhead.

"Hey Aaron!" said Tōshirō with a grin, "What are you doing here?"

Aaron grinned back, "This is Ron; he's in my dormitory. He needs help with his homework."

Tōshirō waved them over, "Sure, I remember him. Come on over."

The two walked over and sat down. Tōshirō smiled "So, what are you stuck on?"

Ron swallowed, "Well… all of it."

Tōshirō immediately began explaining, but Ron interrupted, "Can't I just copy yours?"

Tōshirō's eyebrow went up, "You should try to do your own work; you can't learn just from copying."

Ron shrugged, "So?"

The silver-haired Ravenclaw sighed, "So you won't be able to get a well-paid job if you don't learn."

"I'm going to be a professional Quidditch play! I don't need to know Potions for that!"

Padma spoke up, "What if you get hurt and can't play anymore? What will you do then?"

Ron scowled at her, "Are you saying I'm not good enough at Quidditch to avoid getting injured?"

Padma looked confused, "No, of course not."

"Then don't butt in on conversations that have nothing to do with you!" Ron said rudely before turning back to Tōshirō, "So, can I copy your homework?"

Tōshirō's eyes narrowed, "I think you had better leave."

Ron's ears went red, "Why should I?"

"Because if you don't, I'll call our Head of House. I'm sure at least one portrait in here would be kind enough to fetch him."

Ron scowled, but got up and left, slamming the door behind him. Tōshirō stood up as Aaron spoke, "I didn't…"

"It's okay," said Tōshirō, "You couldn't have known," he turned and headed for the stairs, "Night folks."

-RoI-

"Hey, Hitsugaya!"

Tōshirō turned from his breakfast to find Percy Weasley standing behind him looking cross, "Can I help you, Prefect-san?"

Percy scowled, "My brother Ron says you tried to sabotage his homework while he was working in the library!"

Tōshirō laughed, "Prefect-san, there's a slight difference between sabotaging him and refusing to allow him to copy my homework because he can't be bothered to do it himself."

Percy looked momentarily taken aback, "What?"

Tōshirō twisted fully in his seat to look at the Prefect, "Your brother came to the common room last night in Aaron's company…"

The staff-wielding first year grinned and raised a hand from where he sat opposite with Maia, "Yo,"

"…after telling him that he needed help with his homework. When he arrived however, he immediately asked if he could simply copy my homework. After I refused and tried to explain that he'd never get a good job if he didn't put in the effort, he proceeded to ignore me and then insult one of my friends when she put her own two Knuts into the conversation. I had to threaten to get our Head of House before he would leave."

"He's telling the truth, Percy," said Tim Halligan, the current male Ravenclaw prefect, "Your brother was completely out of order. As for the accusation that this took place in the library, I hardly believe that Madame Pince would willingly permit such an altercation to occur within her library; we all know that she breathes down everybody's necks in there."

Percy nodded calmly, and then walked back to his own table. The occupants of the Ravenclaw table watched carefully as Percy approached his youngest brother, caught him tightly by the ear and towed him from the Great Hall as he struggled to get free. "Thanks," Tōshirō remarked to Halligan as the prefect sat back down.

Halligan shrugged, "No problem." He suddenly stopped and looked over Tōshirō's head, "Headmaster?"

Tōshirō turned in his seat to see Dumbledore standing behind him with that same twinkly-eyed grandfather look he _always _wore when looking at him, "Yes, headmaster?"

Dumbledore smiled, "Harry, I would like you to- Harry?"

Tōshirō turned back to his breakfast, "Sorry, the name's Tōshirō not Harry. I don't know anybody called Harry."

Dumbledore frowned, "I would like you to come with me, Mr Hitsugaya."

"What for?"

"Well, it would appear there has been a disturbance involving yourself and Mr Ronald Weasley. I have heard his story from a portrait in the Gryffindor common room, and I would like you to come with me to my office so that suitable punishments can be-…"

Halligan stood up; Penelope off to Tōshirō's right rising as well. "Headmaster," the female prefect said, "Both Halligan and myself were in the Ravenclaw common room at the time of the incident, we can _both_ bear witness to the proper version of events."

"Yes," said Halligan stubbornly, a slight hint of an Irish brogue entering his tense voice, "and if you got this information from Mr Weasley through a portrait in the _Gryffindor_ common room, might it not have been wise to consult a portrait hanging in the _Ravenclaw _common room as well to make sure that all the facts are in before you punish people?"

Dumbledore looked at both, "I of course know that both of you are friends with Mr Hitsugaya and therefore would easily support him, as would the rest of your house. As such I cannot trust that your version of events is not biased in his favour while I am looking for the truth of this matter…"

"This isn't even an attempt at finding the truth," Tōshirō said curtly, Hyōrinmaru on his shoulder hissing angrily, "Halligan-san offered you a perfectly reasonable suggestion for finding the truth and you completely ignored him."

Dumbledore's eyes flashed as he looked down at the boy standing in front of him, "I am Headmaster in this school, Mr Hitsugaya. You will therefore treat me with _respect_."

"Maybe you should try _earning _that respect by looking for the truth rather than jumping to conclusions, _sir_." Tōshirō responded coldly, before dropping his fork back onto his plate and walking out of the hall.

-RoI-

"Tōshirō, what was that back there? You got really mad at Professor Dumbledore!"

Tōshirō opened his eyes and raised his head. He was sitting beside the lake, having just been working on one of the control exercises Flitwick had told him about, "Hmm?"

"Don't you hmm me!" said Hermione indignantly, "What was that about?"

Tōshirō lay back in the grass, slipping his hands behind his head. Hyōrinmaru slithered down to his side, the dragon's sinuous body curling up beside the sword lying at Tōshirō's right hand. "I said it back there. Respect should be earned, not given. That's why I respect the teachers but not him; because they've _earned _my respect for being good at what they do while he just expects it."

His friends stayed quiet for a few minutes before Aaron sighed and lay down in the grass beside Tōshirō, "So, what do we still need to do?"

Tōshirō grinned, "Just wait and see. But I'm calling a house meeting tonight to discuss something."

Hermione frowned, "Mind if I don't come? I'm a little tired."

Tōshirō smiled, "That's fine. You'll find out what we want to do with this House meeting soon." Without explaining his statement he set off back towards the school.

-RoI-

That evening, after Hermione had gone to bed, Tōshirō looked towards Penelope, "Mind putting up a silencing charm?"

Penelope nodded and cast a silencing charm towards the stairs to the girls' dormitory. Tōshirō waited until she nodded in his direction and then stood up, "Okay folks, I need to make an announcement. Hermione's birthday is in four days, and I want to do something very special for her because she's been putting so much effort into her work lately."

Halligan stood up, "So what do you want to do?"

Tōshirō chuckled, "Set up a little… surprise."

He turned his armchair towards the middle of the room, "So, planning?"

-RoI-

**Five days later.**

Hermione woke up to find that Lily, Lisa and Padma had already woken up and gone downstairs. In silence she washed and dressed before slowly walking down the stairs. Her birthday had been two days previously, and none of her friends had said a word about it to her all through that day's lessons.

It was complete darkness in the common room. Somebody had doused the fire and all the torches, and heavy drapes blocked all light from the windows. As she took a step into the room, the lights suddenly flared and a multitude of voices bellowed, "SURPRISE!"

Hermione jumped before looking around. The room was festooned with party decorations, a banner hung across the middle emblazoned with the words HAPPY BIRTHDAY HERMIONE; a long table was covered in food and Ravenclaws filled the available floor space as they all grinned at her.

Tōshirō stepped forwards out of the throng, "Happy late birthday, Hermione!"

Hermione blinked, "This is what you were planning?"

Tōshirō grinned, "Of course! I figured that you'd been putting so much effort into your work lately that you deserved a reward! We'd have had it earlier but with lessons and all…" He stepped to one side, revealing a table with a pile of presents, "Go on; open them!"

Hermione stepped up to the table and took the first present from the pile. Deftly undoing the paper, she found herself holding a series of books with such titles as _The Definitive Anthology of Enchantment _or _Obscure Texts on the Nuances of Transfiguration_.

"Thank you!" Hermione said happily to Padma, who stood nearby with a girl who could only be her twin sister Parvati.

Padma smiled, "No problem Hermione."

Hermione put the books aside and picked up a small, thin package. Opening it, she found herself holding what appeared to be a pair of ornamental chopsticks.

"They're to go in your hair," explained Maia, "Pass them here." Hermione did so, and the blonde girl quickly pulled Hermione's long brown tresses up into a bun and fixed it in place with the sticks.

"Very nice," Tōshirō commented idly, causing the brunette to blush as she inspected her reflection in a small mirror that Lavender Brown had suddenly provided from nowhere, "You look very nice Hermione."

"Thank you, Tōshirō," she replied as she leaned over and picked up an envelope. Opening it, a confused look crossed her face before she looked up at Lavender, "What are these?"

Lavender beamed happily, "Beauty coupons! Also a voucher which will get you a free makeover from me!"

Maia looked thoughtful, "Mind if I step in to help?"

"Sure!"

Hermione smiled, "Thank you, Lavender."

She put the coupons down and turned back to her presents, picking one up off the top. "That's ours!" said Fred from nearby.

"Hermione," said Penelope, "Be careful. Knowing those two it's a prank of some kind."

Hermione nodded and tore off the wrapping paper, only to blink and hold up the book inside, "I wouldn't have expected you two to know about this…"

Tōshirō read the title; _The Art of War_ by Sun Tzu.

George chuckled, "Hey, we may be Wizard-raised but that doesn't mean we can't appreciate Muggle literature!"

Tōshirō removed the item from Hermione's hands and gave it to Fred, "Flick through every page. If you've trapped it or something I want you two to be the ones it hits."

Lavender leaned over to whisper into Hermione's ear, "Isn't he cute when he's being all protective like this?" Hermione blushed.

Fred obediently leafed through the book and handed it back to Tōshirō, who accepted it and turned to hand it back to Hermione.

There was a loud _splat_, and Tōshirō went rigid as cream sprayed all over his face from the back of the book. Fred and George burst out laughing, followed by the rest of the room.

"Time-delayed cream charm," explained Fred through tears of laughter.

"The funny thing is…" George took up the monologue.

"…if you hadn't…"

"…handed us the book…"

"…we couldn't…"

"…have activated the charm…"

"…which just nailed you!"

Tōshirō scowled, but finally laughed and turned towards Penelope, who cleaned his face.

Hermione turned back to the table, chuckling to herself, just in time to see that Aaron was holding out a scroll to her, "Here, this is for you."

Hermione's eyes went wide, "Is this…?"

Aaron's unspoken reply said it all; Hermione took the scroll and deftly unrolled it. A look of confusion crossed her face, "This isn't mine; this is- Tōshirō! You're descended from Aragorn and Arwen!"

Tōshirō blinked. He had finished _Return of the King _only earlier that week, and most certainly hadn't been expecting such a spectacular link in his past. He took the scroll from Hermione and scanned it. Sure enough, near the bottom it had his name, and at the top it had the names ARAGORN and ARWEN.

"Huh, go figure," he murmured.

Aaron pulled another scroll from his pocket and handed it to Hermione, who unrolled it and examined it. Her jaw dropped, "Eowyn… and Faramir?"

Aaron chuckled. "Hey," Tōshirō suddenly turned to Maia, "Does this mean I get to call you cousin?"

The blonde girl gave him a sardonic glare, "Call me cousin just once and I'm going to punch you."

"_Anyway_," said Aaron pointedly, cutting off the impending argument, "I think Tōshirō still needs to give you a present, Hermione."

Tōshirō jumped up, "That's right!" He walked around to the other side of the table and bent down to look underneath, coming up a second later with a glass vase full of water. "Watch this," he instructed before raising a hand, holding it over the vase and closing his eyes.

There was a pause in which nothing seemed to be happening, but then Hermione noticed that the water in the vase was freezing, ice crystals creeping slowly through the clear liquid. The water level began to rise as the ice expanded, though the vase never cracked. As the ice reached halfway up the neck of the vase, it suddenly erupted, sprouting upwards into long shafts of ice which curved elegantly out of the vase. Tōshirō stopped and inspected the shafts briefly before resuming his work.

The shafts bulged at the tips, swelling and thickening until they resembled buds before splitting, peeling back and revealing a plethora of different flowers, all meticulously cast out of the solid ice.

He picked up the vase, examined the flowers for a brief second and then held out the item to Hermione, "Happy birthday."

Hermione's eyes welled with tears as she held the vase of ice flowers, before she set it on the table again and flung her arms around his neck, pulling him into a close embrace, "Thanks, Tōshirō!"

The girls in the crowd all "aww"-ed, while the guys snickered and muttered comments about Tōshirō being a sissy.

The two broke apart and Tōshirō caught her hand, "Come on, eat!" He pulled her over to the table, where there lay a large cake. Royal blue icing was laid out into a loopy twelve.

"Who made the cake again?" Aaron asked Maia.

"Fred and George got it from the kitchens…" Tōshirō said, and then whirled on the duo, "If you've pranked this cake as well, I will kill you both."

Fred looked offended, "Why, Tōshirō,"

George took over, "How can you accuse us…"

"…of such a terrible crime? We should…"

"…just leave now-ack!"

Tōshirō produced a tennis ball from nowhere and bounced it off his forehead, "Oh be quiet and watch."

Hermione stepped up close to the cake as the students began to sing Happy Birthday, and when she blew out the candles everyone applauded.

It took a few duplicating charms to make sure there was enough cake for everyone to have a slice, but eventually they succeeded everybody dug into the food.

A few games broke out as the party went on, both magical and mundane, and Tōshirō took the time to explain poker before acquiescing to Aaron's begging him to give everyone else a chance and not play. Instead he played a few rounds of Exploding Snap, leading to general hilarity when his fifth consecutive victory resulted in him having to ask around the seventh-years in the hopes of finding one skilled with re-growing eyebrows.

As the party began to wind down and Professor Flitwick came to escort the non-Ravenclaws back to their dormitories, Hermione turned to Tōshirō, "Thank you, Tōshirō. This has been the best birthday ever."

Her silver-haired friend grinned, "Then you should thank everyone else as well. They did most of the work."

Hermione stood up and cleared her throat for attention, "Um, hello. I'd like to thank everyone for setting this up just for me…"

"Blame him!" yelled Halligan, pointing at Tōshirō as everyone laughed, "Him and his silver tongue to go with his hair!"

Hermione turned back to Tōshirō, who was sticking the aforementioned tongue out at Halligan before pulling it back and giving her an unrepentant grin from his seat. Hermione smiled, "Yes, I know he was the mastermind behind it. But what I'd like to say is thank you to everyone because even though I know Tōshirō probably would have done the entire thing himself had you all refused to help, the fact remains that you _did _help and for that I'm grateful. Thank you for making this one of the best birthdays of my life."

There was a room-wide cheer, before Flitwick squeaked from his spot next to the door, "A touching speech, Miss Granger… but I'm afraid that I must remove some of your friends before curfew."

Aaron, Maia, Fred, George, Lavender and Parvati all got up and said their goodbyes before filing out of the entrance. Hermione suddenly yawned and Tōshirō switched to the "mother hen" mode he vehemently denied possessing to anyone within earshot when it kicked in, "You must be tired, you should go to bed."

Hermione smiled, "Of course. Goodnight." She stood up, but stumbled and almost fell. Tōshirō caught her just in time and quickly dispatched her into the capable hands of Lisa Turpin and Lily Moon, who grinned and began to half-drag half-carry Hermione up the stairs. Behind them, the rest of the students began moving, clearing up the debris from the party and beginning to meander upstairs, stuffed with food.

-RoI-

September drew to a close as October arrived, and the temperature outside began dropping slowly as the days went by. Tōshirō and Hermione were still ruthlessly holding the place of top of their year by a wide margin and it was becoming common knowledge among the other three houses that the duo were not going to let up.

It was as they were leaving Transfiguration one morning about a week before the end of October that Tōshirō turned to Hermione, "Hermione, what's Halloween?"

Hermione looked confused for a moment before she laughed, "Oh yes, you wouldn't know what Halloween is growing up in Japan…" She launched into a long explanation of the event.

Tōshirō listened attentively for a few minutes, but suddenly started and interrupted her, "October 31st? Did you just say October 31st?"

At Hermione's nod he groaned, "No… he had to know. He had to know, there's no way he didn't…"

"What? What is it?"

Tōshirō shook his head, "I'll be back later. Tell Flitwick I'll be a little late, I need to talk to the Headmaster." Without waiting for her reply he dashed off.

-RoI-

"Headmaster, we need to talk."

Dumbledore turned around to see Tōshirō Hitsugaya standing in the observatory behind his desk, "How did you get in here?"

"Gargoyle wouldn't let me in the front so I jumped out of a window and climbed up here," Tōshirō replied sardonically as he descended the stairs to stand in front of Dumbledore's desk, "It wasn't that hard. Anyway, I need to talk to you."

Dumbledore sat back in his chair, "About what, Harry?"

Tōshirō pointedly ignored the name as he continued, "This Halloween. The Hollows will be extremely active during Halloween, for at least a week either side. I want to call Soul Society and get a team out here to help me."

Dumbledore shook his head, "Absolutely not."

"What?" Tōshirō said, startled, "Headmaster, I don't think you understand. Hollows are coming in force. There will be thousands of them and they _will_ overcome the barriers around the school. It will be a feeding frenzy on a massive scale once they get inside, and I'm the only person who can stop them."

"I'm sure you're simply exaggerating, Harry."

Tōshirō scowled, "Interesting fact, Headmaster; sometimes the younger generation may know better." He turned and walked to the door, stopping in the doorway, "And just so you know; should any students get badly hurt I will hold you personally responsible." He stepped out, slamming the door behind him.

-RoI-

Tōshirō stepped out of the staircase and flipped his Denreishinki open in mid-stride, "Akon, I've got a problem. I need you to- Akon? Akon?"

The phone was silent. "Kuso!" he swore, "I'm being blocked again!"

He continued to vent his spleen in Japanese at the phone for a full minute before sighing and walking off, "Fine, guess I'll have to go to Plan B…"

-RoI-

"Sorry I'm late, Flitwick-sensei…" Tōshirō said as he slipped into the Charms class and quickly moved over to the empty seat next to Hermione.

"Miss Granger told me where you were, don't worry," squeaked the tiny Charms master before turning back to the board.

"What's the matter?" Hermione whispered, "You look angry."

"I wanted to get some of my colleagues over here to help with the Hollows on Halloween week, but the Headmaster refused. What's worse is my phone won't go through so I can't even check in."

"That's not good…"

"No, it isn't. What's worse is I _know_ there will be too many for me to fight off alone. I only have one real option."

"And what's that?"

"Teach you, Aaron, Maia and Padma a few basic Kidō. With luck you might be able to at least slow them down or hold them back enough for me to wind up a few powerful Kidō."

Hermione's eyes were wide, "But didn't you say you needed permission from them to do that?"

Tōshirō shook his head, "Given the alternative they'll understand. If I don't do this, a lot of students will get badly hurt or killed."

Hermione looked stunned, but nodded, "Okay… now let's pay attention."

Tōshirō nodded and the two of them looked back at Flitwick.

-RoI-

"So what did you need, Tōshirō?" asked Aaron.

Tōshirō scowled, "Our _Headmaster_ decided it'd be a fantastic idea to turn down my request to bring some of my colleagues from Japan here to help hold down an incursion of magical leeches that are drawn to large amounts of magical power."

Three stumped faces looked back at him. The Shinigami ran a hand through his silver hair and sighed, "Okay, in Japan we are taught about a breed of magical leeches we call Hollows. They feed off magic and can seriously injure or kill people, so we are taught to exorcize them. I know that a large number will come here on Halloween; they're bound to; but Dumbledore refused to let me call in backup. As such I need to teach you some of the magic we use in Japan so you can help me."

Padma opened her mouth but Tōshirō cut her off, "Yes, I know I said I needed to get authorization from the school to teach you, but the problem is that I can't contact them to ask. My phone is being blocked. Given the circumstances they will most likely understand, but I must impress upon all of you that this is _not_ something I'm doing lightly."

As they each nodded, Tōshirō stepped over to the board and quickly located some chalk. "This type of magic is known generally as Kidō, which is Japanese for "demon way" or "spirit way"." He sketched the kanji on the board, the romaji underneath and the English meaning under that.

"There are three distinct branches to Kidō; Hadō, the "Way of Destruction", which is combat spells such as Byakurai and Shakkahō…" Again he sketched the kanji, romaji and English meaning on the board.

"…then there is Bakudō, the "Way of Binding", which allows the user to restrain or immobilize their target by spells such as Sai and Hainawa. This branch also covers seals and barriers too." The soft scratching noise of the chalk filled the silence before he turned back.

"And finally we have the most general branch; healing spells. I am accomplished with these myself. They are quite different from Hadō and Bakudō for reasons I will cover in a minute, but for the moment this is enough. Any questions?"

At their silence he smiled, "Excellent. Now, all Hadō and Bakudō require an incantation before they can be cast, though with sufficient practice in the art you may dispense with the incantation at the cost of the spell being much weaker than it would be with the incantation. For the moment however I will have you perform with the incantation."

"What are we learning first then?" asked Aaron.

"Bakudō no Ichi: Sai and Hadō no Ichi: Shō. There are no incantations given these are the two weakest Kidō spells. Kindly begin practicing now."

The others nodded and split up to work. They had stuff to do.

**(A/N: This is shorter than it should be, but I can't help it. I've been so long without an update that I couldn't leave it not updated when I had the chapter basically all written.**

**Now, speaking of updates, I must first apologize. A combination of extreme writer's block, college, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and an overpopulation of plot bunnies have taken up a great deal of my time.**

**Specifics may be called for. Jutsu and Maelstrom have very little in the way of material at the moment, and Sage I have yet to commence writing. Hopefully with this out of the way it might happen a bit sooner however, so keep an eye out. I have not forsaken you, dear readers! Leonineus, OUT!)**


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